


Missing

by laniew1



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Implied Mpreg, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-02-08 13:28:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 59,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21476761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laniew1/pseuds/laniew1
Summary: Ten years ago Alex Manes went missing.
Relationships: Max Evans/Liz Ortecho, Michael Guerin/Alex Manes, OMC/OMC
Comments: 378
Kudos: 597
Collections: Roswell New Mexico ▶ Michael Guerin / Alex Manes





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn't what I was meant to be working on. Warning for implied mpreg though its not graphic and happens all off screen.

**Missing 1/?**

The last 30 miles going into Roswell is the hardest, because it’s boring, nothing to see except for the signs promising that Roswell is ahead and screaming about aliens.

He should have pulled over and got a hotel room, wandered into town when the sun was high in the sky and the chances of his dad being in Roswell instead of on base would be minimized.

As it stands it’s going to be just going on midnight when he hits the town, and his father had to have them all bugged or something when they were infants since he always seems to know when one of them is in town.

Except for Alex, whatever else his dad knows, the location of his youngest son is not something he claims to have any knowledge of.

Ryder knows this is a lie, _knows_ deep in his bones that Jesse Manes knows Alex’s exact whereabouts and has since he went missing just over 10 years prior.

The clock ticks over to 11:30 and the car rings an incoming call.

“I’m not there yet,” he says when he accepts it.

“Are you obeying all posted speed limits?” David laughs, the sound is a balm to the heaviness in his chest that he’s been carrying since he got the e-mail with the pictures. His shoulders relax and his breath comes a little easier.

“I don’t want to get pulled over by the Sheriff, that would be a surefire way of announcing to my dad that I’m in town,” Ryder says.

“You should have let one of us come with you,” David says and Ryder smiles, because by one of them, he really means him. And he’d love nothing more than to have David there with him while he does this, but he also doesn’t want to put David in his dads’ crosshairs.

“No sense burning everyone’s time,” he says softly, “this could be nothing more than another wild goose chase, the pictures could be doctored, or they could be years old.”

“Patrick finished authenticating them,” David says, “there was a lot of technical jargon that meant absolutely next to nothing to me, but whoever sent the files didn’t wipe anything down off them, he says at his best guess they were taken about six months ago.”

Ryder would close his eyes and breathe, would cover his face with his hands and just sob, but he’s driving and just because the pictures were taken six months ago (if Patrick is right, he _really_ hopes he’s right) doesn’t mean that Alex is still alive now.

“Okay,” he says instead.

“What’s your plan when you hit town? You going to try your old man and see if he’ll give you anything?”

“My dad has now met you, which means the only thing he’s going to give me is a lecture that I’ve heard a thousand times when it was directed at Alex and possibly some bruises. I’m going to attempt to _avoid_ my dad at all costs and if luck is on my side I will find Alex and get us both out of town without my dad ever being the wiser.”

“You’re very optimistic compared to this morning, did you pull off at a rest area and have a nap?”

“I’m just…” he can’t articulate what he’s feeling, optimistic isn’t the right word he doesn’t think… hopeful comes closest.

“If you need us, call, not a single one of us wouldn’t drop everything to come help if you need it. Especially not if it gets your brother home,” David says quietly.

“I know,” Ryder says. “Love you.”

“Love you too, be safe,” David says, the call disconnects and the music starts playing from the radio again.

Roswell – 15 miles.

********************************

The motel room smells like piss and pine, it’s nauseating and when he wakes up in the morning with a too flat to be comfortable pillow under his head and a thin blanket over top him he questions all his life choices.

He reaches for his phone and taps in the pass code, scrolls through the pictures.

To remind himself why he’s doing this.

There was three sent to him, Patrick hasn’t been able to figure out where they originated from. Somewhere in the US is the only thing he’s sure of, the pictures are clearly of Alex, he’d recognize his brother anywhere.

Dark hair, skin pale from being in doors, the clothes look like scrubs of some sort.

He’s sitting on the floor in what looks like a cell, there’s a young boy curled up in front of him that Alex has his arms wrapped around, he’s hiding the boy’s face in his shoulder. His hair is dark like Alex’s but curls instead of lying flat.

There’s a defeated expression on Alex’s face that Ryder has never seen, his eyes are dark and blank in all the pictures except for the third one where they’re closed and he’s pressing his face against the boys hair.

Ryder will stay in a room that smells like piss and pine if at the end of this trip he gets his brother in one piece, sitting in the passenger seat of his car while they drive out of Roswell and flip the town the bird on their way with the boy in the back seat.

********************************

He finds a quiet booth in the Crashdown and tries to figure out his next step.

“I thought that was you,” Liz Ortecho looks almost exactly the same as when he last saw her ten years earlier.

“Hey Liz,” he says. “Just the special and a water, please.”

“Sure thing,” she stands there for a minute, tapping her pen against her pad. He waits her out, he is fairly sure he already knows what her question is going to be.

“Heard from Alex at all?” she asks softly, he looks at her and he hates that his first thought is what is her angle?

Has his dad managed to get to her?

Is she trustworthy?

Can she be trusted?

“No,” he says, because he doesn’t have answers to any of those questions and he has three pictures that prove Alex was still alive months ago, but he doesn’t want to trust the wrong person and have that being the thing that has Alex’s body turning up in the desert.

“That’s weird, right? That he’s not contacted anyone, at all, since…” Liz just looks at him and her eyes are screaming at him to tell her that Alex is okay.

“There was never a missing persons report filed,” he says slowly, it’s the only thing he can give her, Liz snorts and rolls her eyes.

“Your dad would never have allowed that, he probably threw out everything Alex owned the minute he didn’t come home,” she mutters. She’d been friends with Alex in high school, her and Maria and Kyle Valenti… they would have known what Alex’s relationship with their dad was like. Likely knew _why_ the relationship was so contentious.

“You knew,” he says, more to himself then to her.

“He never said anything, you know, he never actually _came out_ to anyone except maybe Mimi,” Liz slides into the booth across from him, he glances down at the pad and the order that she never turned in and she smirks at him, “papa will bring you a special, you always get the same thing.”

Ryder stares at her and she stares back.

“There was never a missing persons report filed,” he says again and she nods. “Alex isn’t officially a missing person.”

“He’s not a runaway either,” Liz says, he looks at her in surprise. “Ten-year reunion was a couple weeks ago, couple of us got together and were talking and Kyle did some digging without telling his mom why and there’s no missing persons report, your dad didn’t even report him as a runaway or anything. The last time there was any sign of him was the day before Rosa’s accident. Then nothing, it’s like he just…”

“Vanished into thin air,” Ryder finishes.

“Yeah, he was seventeen and he’d talked about leaving Roswell after graduation but…” Liz shrugs. “There’s people he wouldn’t have left behind and not ever contacted, you know?”

“Who have you talked about this with?” he asks, he taps his fingers against the table. Hopefully the number is small enough that it can be contained, if his dad knows that people are digging into Alex’s disappearance… if he _is_ involved like Ryder _knows_ he is, he might try to move him and then Ryder has to start all over again.

“Me, Maria, Kyle, and Max Evans and Michael Guerin. Maria says Alex and Michael had a ‘moment’ or something, though Michael hasn’t said a damned word about it to me,” it amuses him a bit that Liz sounds so irritated about whoever Michael is not sharing with her.

“I’d like to meet with you guys,” Ryder says slowly, he’s got to figure out a game plan, that’s five extra heads to account for speaking to people about Alex, he needs them all in one place so he can shut them down before they drawn any more attention to themselves and by extension him. “Some place secure.”

Liz just looks at him with wide eyes.

“Sooner rather than later.”

********************************

He leaves his phone number with Liz and another reminder of ‘soon’. He hopes that it’s sinking in that soon means like sometime that evening.

He drives out to the middle of nowhere to call David, it’s not that he thinks that his father has somehow gotten over his aversion to technology and figured out a way to listen in to his private phone calls. But he’s also pretty sure that his father has no problem delegating that task to an underling.

“I need you to keep an eye on my dad,” he says when David picks up with a distracted “hello?”

“What’s happened?” David asks, because of course he’s going to go to promptly start mentally going through worst case scenarios.

“Friends of Alex’s from school apparently had a get together and are asking questions.”

“Jesus, it’s been ten years, why are they just asking them now?” David asks, Ryder can hear the clacking of his keyboard on the other end of the line.

“Who even knows, maybe they all thought he’d show up for the ten-year reunion, they know there was no missing person report filed, they know that our dad never had Alex listed as a runaway either.”

“Okay, well your dad is on base, as long as he keeps his cellphone on him, I can track him that way, might need you to figure out a way to get a tracker on his vehicle just in case though.”

“I just want you to know we’re venturing into James Bond spy territory here and I’m totally imagining you in a three-piece suit right now,” Ryder says, and David laughs at him.

********************************

Liz texts him an address and the mailbox has Evan’s spelled out in metallic letters when he gets there so he assumes their secure meeting location is Max Evan’s house.

He’s the last to arrive, probably the others hope to put him at a disadvantage, to force him off guard.

For all that they’re only three years younger then him they all seem like kids playing a grown-up game. He has a backpack slung over his shoulder with a portable jammer, his laptop and a folder that contains the three pictures of Alex printed out.

He’s not sure if he’ll show them the pictures, or even pull his laptop out.

But the jammer is going to be sitting in the center of whatever room they’re meeting in or he’s not saying a fucking word until it is.

He’s had background checks ran on all of the names that Liz tossed at him, so he knows that Max Evans answers the door, he’s still in his deputy’s uniform.

“You must be Ryder,” Max says as he holds his hand out, Ryder shakes it with an arched brow, someone beat some manners into this guy. “They’re all arguing in the living room.”

“Arguing about what?”

“Who even knows anymore,” Max says, he locks the door after Ryder enters. At least someone seems to understand the gravity of the situation.

“Hey Ryder,” Kyle waves at him when he walks in, the last time Ryder saw Kyle he’d been a baby faced fourteen-year-old, he’d made it a point to not go home again after he left for basic.

The arguing seems to be between Liz and Maria and an ash blonde that he doesn’t recognize but is likely Isobel Evans since she was listed as Max’s sister on his background.

He waits until Liz notices him and she opens her mouth to say something, likely to demand he tell them everything he knows about Alex.

And maybe he will, maybe he won’t but he holds up a hand and when her eyes narrow at him he digs into the backpack and brings out the jammer. Sets it in the middle of the coffee table shoving some magazines out of the way so it sits flat, presses the buttons to turn it on.

Liz’s eyes go wide and she shoots a look at the other man in the room, Michael Guerin doesn’t look anything like the pictures that he was able to find of him. He’s slouching into the couch on the other side of Isobel looking for all the world like he doesn’t know why he’s there.

“We don’t talk about anything outside this room, and you stop asking around about Alex,” Ryder says. “That’s not negotiable,” he says when both Kyle and Max make noises of disagreement. Michael and the girls stay silent.

“Is he still alive?” Michael asks and Ryder looks over at him, he’s the epitome of a rough and tumble cowboy.

“I don’t know,” Ryder answers, honestly. Because they deserve that at the very least. “He was six months ago, it’s why I need you to stop asking questions, stop drawing attention to the fact that he’s being looked for.”

“You’ll at least tell us what you know?” Maria asks, her eyes shoot over to Isobel and Isobel doesn’t say anything just inclines her head in agreement to whatever Maria is asking of her.

“It’s not much,” Ryder admits, “I’m hoping you guys might be able to fill in some blanks as well.”

********************************


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy cow, thank you guys! Thank you for going on this wild ride with me. :)

**Missing 2/?**

It’s apparently Michael’s story, as the only person there that lived through it. He doesn’t make eye contact with anyone in the room, and none of _them_ seemed shocked by any part of it.

Whatever else he’s had to tell them this story before.

Ryder is spitting mad by the end of it, has to force himself to take deep breaths slowly so as to not hyperventilate and physically _stop_ himself from going after his dad.

They were just _kids_.

Michael is folded in on himself by the end, Isobel wrapped around him as much as possible and the hand that his dad took a _fucking_ hammer to is cradled against his chest. It looks normal, so at some point he got talked into seeing a doctor and having it looked at.

Michael was the last person to see Alex, and he hasn’t seen him since that day.

“I went back,” he admits in a whisper. “Your dad was gone and I was looking for Alex, wanted to make sure he was okay. But there was no one there.”

No, because he’s sure that was when his dad had moved Alex to that tiny cell and locked him away like an animal.

“I kind of thought he just took off,” Michael says, “I kind of hoped he had, because the alternative was…” he shakes his bent head. He’s probably crying or trying not to, _Ryder_ wants to and he wasn’t even there when it happened.

He drags his hands over his face and thinks.

“Couple months ago I got sent some pictures,” he says finally after the room sits in silence except for Michael’s harsh breathing and Isobel’s soft murmurs.

“Pictures of Alex?” Kyle asks, he’s been watching Michael with careful eyes, from Ryder’s digging he knows that he’s a doctor now. Probably trying to decide if he needs to medicate him.

“Yeah, one of the guys I work with was able to date them, they were taken maybe six months ago, no way to determine _where_ they were taken though,” Ryder pulls the folder out of his backpack, taps it against the palm of his hand and lets out a slow steady breath.

Then lays out the pictures in a row, one by one.

Maria sobs, hand covering her mouth as she turns away, Liz brushes at her eyes but otherwise manages to keep herself in check. Kyle is swearing under his breath and Isobel is tapping one long finger against the first picture. Max has one hand wrapped around Michael’s shoulder and Michael hasn’t looked at them yet.

Isobel looks up at him and Ryder crosses his arms over his chest and looks back. He can tell from the expression in her eyes, the look on her face…

She knows.

Those are Michael’s curls on the boy’s head, he has Alex’s coloring from what can be seen of him in the picture, but those curls are all Michael’s.

********************************

He leaves the pictures, once Michael looked at them he knew he wasn’t getting them back. It’s okay, he’s got the electronic copies and hopefully really soon they’ll have Alex and the boy and no need for pictures.

“I know you want us to stay out of it, but…” Max says, he’s followed Ryder out to his vehicle.

“Look, I don’t even know where they’ve got him locked up,” Ryder says, he’s bone tired. He needs to call David and he needs to sleep and then he needs to get back to work.

He’s never going to find Alex if he has to keep stopping his search in order to talk to people.

“The only reason we even started asking questions about Alex was because your dad went to Kyle and tried to recruit him for some probably not military sanctioned project,” Max says.

Ryder looks at him and Max has the most earnest face he’s ever seen, he _could_ be playing him, but he’s also got to go back into his house where his brother has only pictures of a kid that might be his son.

“Project Shepherd,” Max says, “that’s what Kyle said Jesse called it, he thinks there’s aliens in Roswell and it’s his mission to protect everyone from them.”

“Right, aliens,” because it’s Roswell, why _wouldn’t_ there be aliens.

********************************

“It’s not going to vanish into thin air if you put it down,” Kyle says, Michael absolutely hates the tone in his voice. That’s his ‘talking to crazy people’ voice and he doesn’t like it.

Ryder had left the pictures and Michael hadn’t thought it could get any worse than thinking Alex had just outright abandoned him, but it could.

In a million years, in a million _lifetimes_ he would never have though that a father could hate his son enough to lock him up like an animal.

But there’s Alex in a cage, he’s thin and pale, but at least he’s not alone because he has their fucking son locked up in there with them.

“What do you think his name is?” Michael asks, Isobel is a warm weight against his left arm, he can’t seem to stop staring at the pictures. He can’t see his sons face in any of them, and he wishes he couldn’t see Alex’s because he’s never seen Alex look that defeated.

Not ever, he’d always been stubborn and angry and defiant as hell.

No one answers, because they don’t know.

Isobel presses a kiss to his temple and pushes away, Maria settles next to him taking her place.

“We’re going to find him,” she murmurs, her hands wrap around his arm and she lays her head against his shoulder. She’s one of his best friends, besides Max she was the first person that figured out who Alex was to him.

He stares at the picture, at Alex’s dark eyes that seem to be begging him to save them.

He wishes he could tell them that they’re trying.

********************************

“Project Shepherd,” he says when David answers the phone, “dig up whatever you can find and figure out where my dad falls into it.”

“I don’t even get a ‘hi honey, I missed you today’, straight to the homework, huh.”

“I think you know that I missed you, do I even really need to say the words?”

“Well, sometimes they are nice to hear.”

********************************

He’s bought candles and a wall plug in, it _looks_ totally gay, but he doesn’t care because it’s masking the smell of piss and pine with a nice vanilla buttercream which is only serving to highlight the fact that he had a couple of crappy burritos from the gas station for dinner.

His phone buzzes and he’s already swept the room for bugs twice, he doesn’t think his dad has even realized he’s in town yet.

“So Project Shepherd is a defunct military program, shut down officially in the early 90’s,” David says by way of greeting. “So I’m going to assume since you’re asking me to check it out that Project Shepherd is not _completely_ defunct as it should be?”

“No, any records or anything on it you can forward?”

“Shut down in the 90’s,” David reminds him. “Very little of it has made its way to any electronic databases. I’ve got Patrick and Oliver digging through some of the shadier sides of the internet to see if they can find any mention of it.”

Ryder sighs and lays in the bed with his arm over his eyes and doesn’t think about the nice comfortable bed in their apartment that David is probably curled up in with his laptop.

“Project Shepherd was officially the military response for aliens, are we going with the assumption that your old man has flipped his lid and thinks your brother is an alien?”

“I’m more thinking that he flipped because he thinks Alex had sex with one,” Ryder says. “Kid has Michael Guerin’s hair.”

“Did we know that your brother had the gene? I don’t remember us having that conversation, though that makes the kid your nephew,” and he can hear the panic sliding into David’s voice. That now that there’s proof that the boy in the photo with Alex is kin that Ryder is going to go off the rails to get his brother and nephew back home where they belong.

Screw playing it safe.

“Dad didn’t believe in the tests, thought they were all a bunch of hand wavy medical bullshit. He didn’t have any of us tested when it first came out. I had it done when I enlisted,” and it had come back negative for the gene which at the time was a good thing, but now that he’s had time and distance between him and his dad he thinks he would have liked it to have been positive.

He’d never wanted kids, now as he climbs his way into his 30’s he’d like to have one or two.

********************************

He’s on his first cup of coffee and tapping on his cellphone when his dad slides into the booth across from him. He’s not far enough into the coffee or had breakfast, he really doesn’t want to have to deal with his dad.

“You don’t even bother to call and tell me you’re coming through Roswell,” Jesse has aged well, he doesn’t look near old enough to have a kid pushing 40 but that’s where Hunter stands.

“I’m not here for anything official, just had some vacation time to burn,” Ryder says, he manages a smile at Liz when she sets his plate in front of him. She doesn’t even acknowledge his dad before she turns away.

Out of the corner of his eye he can see Michael and Max sitting at the counter, they’re not being very stealthy about the fact that they’re both keeping an eye on the booth. He thinks Max actually has a hand on Michael’s arm to keep him there.

“Something I can help you with?” he asks when his dad sits there silently staring at him while he eats.

“Why are you here?” Short, to the point. He’s not a kid anymore, kid him would have been terrified to have that tone directed at him.

“Had some time to burn, thought I would dig around for some information on Alex,” Ryder says, he keeps his voice non-confrontational, nothing good ever came from confronting his father on anything.

“Your brother couldn’t handle things and took off, don’t know why you and your brothers won’t just let it go.”

So it’s not just him finally asking the right questions, finally digging in the right areas.

“He’s our brother, we want him to be safe,” Ryder states, “I would think as his father you would be concerned about the same thing.”

Jesse narrows his eyes at him, doesn’t say anything before he slides out of the booth and leaves.

Ryder lets out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, folds his shaking hands together in his lap hidden by the table.

He’s not a child anymore, not a teenager driven by the desire to please his father, he’s still terrified of the man.

********************************

He calls Flint and Hunter, one after the other, both go directly to voicemail.

He doesn’t leave messages.

********************************

“So we think we might have something,” David says by way of greeting.

“Like what?” Ryder knows enough now to not get his hopes up, not unless he wants them cruelly dashed.

“A location, it’s just a site with some coordinates, your dad’s cellphone has visited it like six times in the last two months.”

Ryder sits on the edge of his bed, he’s in sweat pants and a t-shirt but it would take him a couple seconds to throw on some jeans and boots.

“Where?” he asks and David snorts at him.

“Nice try, we’ll be there in a couple of hours, come up with a game plan on how we want to proceed, I give you the coordinates now we show up to a hole in the ground.”

“He’s my brother,” Ryder says desperately, “and that’s my nephew and they’ve been there long enough.”

“And we’re going to do this right, so we have the best possible chance of making sure you get to ensconce them in our guest room and drop a couple of paychecks on ten years’ worth of birthday and Christmas presents.”

********************************


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I continue to thank you profusely for trusting me on this wild ride! :)

**Missing 3/?**

“You need to stop,” Max says, he sounds so sensible when he says it.

He wants to wipe Jesse Manes off the earth, wants to obliterate him from existence, he must say that out loud or something to the affect because Max shoots him his disappointed look.

“We will never find them if you do that,” he says and it cuts all Michael’s strings, everything keeping him upright and moving, the _anger_ that is keeping him fueled just releases out of him like he’s been punched and he sits down hard on one of the kitchen chairs and stares at the chipped kitchen table that they found in a goodwill when Max bought the house.

“It would have been a high-risk pregnancy,” Michael says numbly, he couldn’t sleep after everyone else had gone off to their beds. So, he’d used Max’s laptop and dug around the internet, all he could find was horror story after horror story. “They almost always are, like 50% of the time the pregnancies can’t even go to term, because you know just because the gene is there doesn’t mean human male body is designed to… they could have both _died_, and we would never have even known.”

Max puts a plate with half a sandwich on it in front of him, squeezes his shoulder before he sits down near him.

“But they didn’t,” he says, Michael doesn’t look up even though he can feel Max staring at him. “They didn’t and we’re going to find them. Me and Liz, Isobel, Maria, Kyle, we’re not going to stop looking until we find them, we’re going to bring them home.”

The ‘finally’ is unspoken and Michael bites at his lip, swallows around the boulder that seems to be lodged in his throat. He feels like he hasn’t stopped panicking since he saw the pictures, saw Alex broken, saw the son he didn’t even know he needed to be worrying about huddled against him.

“Valenti,” Michael mutters.

“We wouldn’t even have started asking questions if it weren’t for him,” Max reminds him and Michael doesn’t _need_ the reminder.

Kyle is in therapy, because he’s a doctor and ostensibly a thing doctors do is talk about their feelings with other doctors.

He has some guilt over how he treated Alex in high school, that’s what his therapy has told him, and he’d wanted to find Alex to apologize and start rebuilding a friendship that apparently had started when they were still in diapers.

Except when he decided to go searching for Alex he couldn’t find anything, when he went to his mom _she_ couldn’t find anything because there was no missing person’s report filed, he’d not been listed as a runaway, he’d just vanished into thin air.

Michael scrubs his hands over his eyes and picks up the half a sandwich that Max has made for him. He’s not hungry but everyone keeps insisting he needs to keep his energy up.

It tastes like cardboard in his mouth and he tries not to think about what Alex and their son are eating, _if_ they’re even being fed.

He knows they’re not being treated well, because people being treated well don’t look as defeated as Alex had.

********************************

He doesn’t know how Isobel found out, he doesn’t _want_ to know because Isobel knows better than to walk through anyone’s mind. Especially without him or Max there to pull her out if needed.

“Does it really matter?” she asks and she sounds pissed and exhausted at the same time. She probably walked through dreams and minds until she found what she was looking for, she doesn’t do it very often, doesn’t like what she finds normally.

He knows she only did it to help him get Alex home where he belongs.

It was still too big a risk.

It’s early, light is barely coming up over the horizon.

“Isobel,” Max says.

“They know, or they think they know where they are,” Isobel says, “I can handle some exhaustion if it gets us closer to finding them.”

“Ryder’s staying at one of the motels down on the main strip,” Liz says and Michael nods. It takes putting his truck in drive to realize that he’s not alone, Kyle is buckling his seat belt and just raises an eyebrow at him.

Michael mutters under his breath but still points the truck in the direction of Roswell.

********************************

David is warm curled around him in the bed, its one reason he’s been ignoring the loud never-ending knocks on the door.

“I can shoot them, no court in the US would convict me,” David mutters and drags Ryder’s pillow over his head as Ryder pushes the blankets away and gets up.

The sun is barely peeking up over the horizon, and Michael Guerin looks the wrong side of frantic.

“You know where they are,” he says in a rush of breath, Ryder looks over his shoulder and can see Kyle standing there looking like an unmovable object.

“Jesus, I was worried about my dad bugging me should I have been worried about you guys instead?” Ryder prompts dragging a hand through his hair.

“We didn’t bug you…” Michael starts and just stops, makes a face and looks back at Kyle with wide eyes. Kyle just shakes his head and shrugs.

Ryder doesn’t push the issue even though he wants to, one problem at a time.

He lets out a breath and opens the door wide enough for them to come in. David is sitting up in the bed and he looks well rested and relaxed, though Ryder knows he has his gun next to his hip.

When they’re traveling, he sleeps with it under the pillow, Ryder is always half terrified he’s going to wake up having been shot in the fucking head. He tried to talk about it with David once, but David had just raised an eyebrow at him and told him that if he shot him in the head he wouldn’t wake up.

Which both wasn’t the point that Ryder was trying to make and completely _made_ his point at the same time.

“You know where they are,” Michael says again, he doesn’t look at either one of them, just paces the short space between the bed and the door. Kyle settles on one hip against the flimsy table and Ryder sits on the end of the bed with a sigh and doesn’t ask how they know that.

They’re neither one going to tell them the truth, and he really doesn’t want Michael to have to lie to them, not when Michael is probably going to be a part of their lives going forward.

“We’re going to check out a place,” Ryder says, “can’t guarantee we’re going to find anything.”

David doesn’t say anything behind him though Ryder knows he’s judging him harshly for not being more comforting and hopeful to Alex’s baby daddy.

“It’s Alex,” Michael says, he stops moving in front of the TV and Ryder wishes he’d keep moving because now he can see badly the other man is shaking. “And my kid, I need to be there.”

“We’re not even sanctioned for this…” Ryder starts and David coughs. Ryder twists to look at him.

“I called in a favor and got us some backup,” David shrugs like it doesn’t mean a thing. “Just you, me, Oliver and Patrick, didn’t seem like enough bodies. So I called in a favor, got us a couple more bodies and a Major that was willing to support the whole thing.”

“When did you even have the time?”

“You know I can’t sleep when Oliver is driving, so I, you know, kept myself busy so I wasn’t looking head on into my imminent death for the entire drive.”

********************************

When Ryder gets done in the bathroom, he tags David in, gets a quick distracted kiss and a “talk to your fucking almost brother in law he’s depressing the hell out of me,” muttered at him before David shuts the door loudly in his face.

Kyle is on his phone at the flimsy table.

“He needed some air,” Kyle says gesturing to the door and Ryder leaves the towel draped over the second chair and steps out into New Mexico heat.

Michael is sitting on the lowered tailgate of his truck and he’s got a cowboy hat hanging low over his eyes. He doesn’t seem like he would be Alex’s _type_ at all.

“It doesn’t seem real,” Michael says when Ryder sits on the other side of the tailgate. “When I thought about what happened to Alex this wasn’t even…”

“Yeah,” Ryder mutters, he drags a hand over his face. “I kind of thought, _hoped_ that he just took off like he’d always said he was going to. Took a couple of years before I realized that even if he had, he’d been a kid. As smart as he was he couldn’t have hidden like this forever.”

“I have a son,” Michael whispers, he sounds so awestruck and when Ryder looks over he’s staring out into the sun and has tears in his eyes.

********************************

“You are not benching me,” Ryder says hotly when it becomes apparent that is exactly what is happening. Michael had hoped that he and Kyle had been allowed to tag along because they were going to use them.

Instead it looks like they were allowed to tag along because this way they knew exactly where they were while other people were going in to rescue Alex.

And Ryder was allowed along for the exact same reason.

“You’re going to sit on comms with Oliver,” David waves a hand over to where Oliver is setting up in a van with a laptop connected to a half dozen screens.

These guys aren’t military, Michael realized this when they got to the meeting point and they were met by actual military in uniform and none of these guys had changed into anything except adding a bulletproof vest with no identifying markings over top their regular clothes.

They get shuffled into the van with Oliver and Ryder snaps and snarls uselessly while Michael takes the opportunity to park himself in the chair next to the guy who’s tapping away at keyboards while looking like he could crush everything he touches if he thought about it hard enough.

He’s doing some deep breathing techniques that him and Max have been working on because the last thing he needs to do is lose control when they’re this close.

“They’re going to be fine,” Oliver says, he doesn’t even look away from his monitors, which is how Michael realizes that those monitors are giving them a sneak peek into the big not so empty building they’re parked a distance away from.

“This is absolute bullshit,” Ryder snaps.

“David gave me authority to pull a gun and handcuff you to a chair if it came to it,” Oliver states idly, Michael thinks with the muscles on this guy that he likely wouldn’t even need the gun. He could just wrap an arm around Ryder and he’d be restrained.

“No cameras I can hack into on the lower levels,” Oliver says, Michael jumps a bit before he realizes that Oliver is not talking to them. “But I looped the feeds so you should be good to get to their control room without interference.”

When Michael glances back Ryder is finally seated, he has his arms crossed over his chest and still looks pissed off. But he’s also intently watching the groups move steadily through the hallways.

The place is mostly abandoned, the only people Michael can see on the cameras that aren’t theirs seem to be in the control room.

He doesn’t know if that’s a good sign, he thinks it might be a bad sign that it is so obviously minimally staffed. He prays to a god he doesn’t believe in for Alex and his son to still be there.

“Control room secure,” Oliver says and Michael releases a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“Are we allowed to go in now?” Ryder mutters, he sounds all the world like a petulant kid and Michael bites his lip to keep from grinning.

“As soon as they give the all clear,” Oliver twists in his chair and cocks his head at Ryder. “Can you wait that long princess?”

********************************

The hallways are empty and dusty, the whole first level of the building screams abandoned facility. No one had left and the teams had moved to the lower levels after they took the control room.

Ryder knows they had to have found _something_ since they’re all still down there, they’re still directed to the control room though, led there by a stony-faced Sergeant.

David is having a whispered argument with a Captain that Ryder sort of recognizes, though it stops the minute they walk in.

“We’ve got a problem,” David says and he looks pissed, Ryder feels like there’s a pit opening up his stomach.

They moved him, moved _them_, they’re too late, he doesn’t realize that he actually said the words out loud until David takes a step forward and squeezes his hand. It’s the most comfort he’ll allow himself to offer while they have witnesses.

“They’re still here,” he says softly. “We’ve got a separate, bigger issue.”

“This is everything I’ve been able to dig up for the building schematics,” Ryder’s back stiffens because he would recognize Flint’s voice anywhere.

“Flint,” he says and his brother drops his pile of folders and papers on the table in the center of the room.

“It took you fucking long enough,” Flint says, “I sent the pictures six fucking months ago, were you sleeping or something?”

“You sent me three pictures with no location, nothing else to go on. Why didn’t you just get them out of here yourself?”

“You’re the big fancy secret agent man now,” Flint snaps. “I figured you’d _know_ they came from either me or Hunter because who else is going to send you pictures of _our_ kid brother? I thought you’d put your big brain to work and you’d trace the phone and figure out where we were. Six fucking months, man! I wouldn’t even have sent them but dad doesn’t trust a single person anymore, and I guess that includes his kids because he has me locked out of the whole system, basically the only thing I could do was sit with them at night and promise we were going to get them out of here. And keep them from fucking _moving_ them which they’ve tried to do like nine times since I sent the pictures.”

“We do actually have a separate problem then your on-going family drama,” David interjects, and Ryder looks over at him though Flint is the one that responds.

“Dad or someone had the whole building wired with explosives, we need to actually open the doors via the computer with a passcode we don’t have or the building blows up with them still in it.”

********************************

Flint doesn’t end up handcuffed though he does have a military guard standing watch behind him, which Michael guesses is because he’s actually on their side and not his dads.

“He handed over his weapon and his radio and I’ve met your brothers before, he’s not that great an actor,” David says as he leads them down a long hallway then pushes open the door leading to the stairwell.

“Are they okay?” Ryder asks and Michael clenches his hands into fists as they wait for David’s answer.

“They’re good, we can’t get them out of the cells they’re locked in but I have faith in Oliver,” David says.

The fluorescent lighting in the hallway the stairwell opens into is bright, _overly_ bright and it just serves to highlight how dingy and dirty everything is.

Some of the cells they pass are occupied, at least four other people are being kept here besides Alex and their son, they’re all old and tired looking and they have the same eyes that Alex had in the pictures.

They all look defeated.

He thinks they’re all like him as well, they’re not human. They’re _locked_ in these cells because they’re not human.

Alex is in the third cell from the end and Michael isn’t sure where the keening noise is coming from until Kyle squeezes his arm and he realizes it’s coming from him.

Alex is sitting up on a thin bed with his back to the wall, the boy is curled up next to him with his head in his lap, Alex is stroking his hair in slow even movements, his eyes are closed.

Michael drinks in the sight of him, and takes a step forward, then another until he’s standing face pressed against the partition separating them, fingers pressing against it like if he just tries hard enough, he’ll be able to get through it and hold Alex safe in his arms for the first time in over ten years.

“Alex,” he says and he can feel the press of Ryder’s arm against his as they stand there and wait for Alex to notice them.

“They can’t hear you,” David says, “We can’t hear them either, not while they’re still locked in there.”

Some noise must filter through, or Alex notices _something_ has changed because his eyes snap open suddenly and it feels like the air goes electric.

The shock on his face, the _hope_ that appears there. His hand stills on the boy’s hair and boy sits up, confused until he sees them standing there.

Alex slowly gets to his feet, he’s not wearing any shoes, neither of them are and the thin shirt and pants they’re wearing are too big on them.

Alex takes the few steps from the bed to the wall separating them and presses trembling hands against it where Michael’s hands are already touching, if it weren’t there… Alex’s bottom lip is quivering, and his eyes are wet as he closes his eyes and touches his forehead to the glass.

Michael mirrors his movements though he doesn’t close his eyes because he wants to look down at the boy standing next to Alex looking up at him curiously even as he presses into his side. Alex drops one arm to curl over his shoulders and hug him tight to him.

He wants to gather them up in his arms and never let them go.

Soon, he thinks, soon.

********************************


	4. Chapter 4

**Missing 4/?**

“How soon can we have them out of there?” Ryder demands, he’s left Michael and Kyle down sitting with Alex and the boy. Though Alex hasn’t looked away from Michael long enough, he thinks, to even realize that Kyle is there.

He’d barely even acknowledged Ryder.

“Working on it,” David says, he has his head bent together with Flint's as they mark through plans laid out across the table.

“Whoever programmed this system was batfuck crazy,” Oliver states, “but I think I’ve figured out the unlock pass codes. Kind of want to test it first though, before we blow up the whole damn building up with all of us still in it.”

“Can you test it on one of the empty cells?” Ryder asks, he leans his hip against the counter that Oliver has his laptop balanced on. He’d pointedly not looked at any of the other cells, there’s four other people locked up down there besides Alex and his nephew. He wonders what they did to draw Jesse Manes’ wrath, besides something that led the man to believe they weren’t human.

“There used to be more of them,” Flint says, “they started moving them about seven months ago from what I can track, all those cells used to be filled at one time. The four that are left with Alex and Colby…”

“Colby?” Ryder asks.

“Our nephew,” Flint jerks his head in the direction of the monitor showing Alex and Colby sitting pressed against the glass of their cell. “Colby Michael.”

It startles a laugh out of him, there is nothing about this situation that is even remotely funny and Flint frowns at him, but trust Alex to figure out a way to needle their dad just that little bit more.

“That’s Colby’s dad, his name is Michael Guerin,” Ryder snorts, he waves at where they can’t see Michael pressed up against the opposite side of the glass separating him from Alex and Colby.

“You said you were talking to them?” David asks. “Is there a speaker system we can activate? Try and communicate with them, hearing his voice will probably go a long way…”

Flint shakes his head, looking tired and a _hell_ of a lot older then he actually is.

“A lot of fucking charades, some lip reading, I brought a white board one time but there was nothing for Alex to use on his side and it was just depressing for all of us.”

“Okay,” Ryder breathes, just long even breaths because there’s nothing to be done about it now. Jesus, how long has it even been since Alex has heard the sound of anyone’s voice besides his kids. “Dad was that scared of them?”

Flint laughs harshly. “Scared is one word for it, the four they didn’t move were deemed too unstable, they probably hoped they were all going to just kick the bucket before they had to worry about them.”

“Unstable? Are they sick or something?” David peers at the monitors where the other four cells are showing 3 elderly men and 1 elderly woman that don’t look ill or sickly to the naked eye.

“It’s kind of…” Flint’s face does something weird, like he can’t think of the right words to say and Ryder just wishes he’d spit out whatever he can’t think of. “They can do things? With like their minds or something?”

Ryder blinks at him and looks at David who looks just as confused.

“Is this the alien thing?” Ryder asks carefully, “does dad think they’re not human?”

“They’re kind of not,” Flint shrugs, “The four of them left are all telekinetic to some degree or another,” he sighs, drags a hand over his face. “And then there’s Alex and Colby. The docs before they all left or got kicked out or whatever apparently had been theorizing that they started developing the powers or whatever because of proximity to the others. You can imagine how well that went over with dear old dad.”

“You have a different theory?” Ryder asks, because he knows Flint, he knows there should have been a but there.

“The only other person that Alex has been in close proximity for any length of time for the last ten years is Colby,” Flint says.

“You think Colby is doing something to Alex? He’s just a fucking kid,” Ryder snaps.

Flint rolls his eyes at him.

“Dad pulled almost every scrap of paper from here, don’t know where he moved it to, but he didn’t touch or didn’t know how to touch the electronic stuff. Don’t look at Alex’s medical records if you don’t want _more_ reasons to want dad to die horrifically and painfully.”

“Jesus,” Ryder breathes. “What did they do to him?” Alex was his kid, his youngest son.

Flint shakes his head, he drags a hand over his face and there’s something absolutely _haunted_ in his eyes and Ryder doesn’t want to know what that means.

“A lot of shit that I wouldn’t have thought dad was capable of,” Flint swallows roughly. “Stuff that I wouldn’t have thought dad would ever condone being done to someone related to him by fucking blood, I’m not sure who to thank that he doesn’t seem to have ever touched Colby but Alex would protect his kid with his life so I’m pretty sure he made a deal with dad to keep him away.”

Flint taps his fingers against the table he’s leaning against. “I found a buried report that one of the docs wrote, he couldn’t prove anything because _he_ didn’t have access to a lot of the relevant information,” he sounds bitter about it, Ryder doesn’t even want to dig into the files and has half a mind to leave everything to Oliver and Patrick and have David feed him what he needs to know in small censored pieces that won’t cause him to have to dive back into therapy more than once a week or want to murder his father.

“Doc didn’t know _why_ Alex would have been injured enough to even require healing in the first place, but he thought there was a possibility that something was happening at an often enough frequency that Colby was _healing_ Alex. That prolonged and multiple healings changed enough of Alex’s genetic makeup that he started exhibiting signs of similar powers.”

There’s a lot of information there, Ryder closes his eyes and takes a slow even breath. Then opens them and stares at Flint who’s looking at him with his mouth in a flat line.

He doesn’t say another word and Ryder nods.

Alex didn’t have any ‘powers’ before he went into that cell, he had Colby and now ten years later he does if Flint is to be believed.

Colby’s other dad is Michael and he doesn’t vocalize the fact that Michael had _known_ they’d found a possible location for where Alex was being held, he doesn’t vocalize the fact that there was no way that Michael or _anyone_ should have known they knew that.

David meets his eyes and nods once in understanding.

This is not a topic they’ll discuss again.

“Oliver?” Ryder starts.

“I’ve got the passcodes, I can open the doors whenever we’re ready,” Oliver says, he looks up at him and nods, Ryder squeezes his shoulder once.

********************************

Ryder has made multiple trips down, back and forth while they wait for their computer guy to figure out how to get the doors opened up and let them out without putting them all in jeopardy.

His son’s name is Colby Ryder tells him on one of those pass-through, Michael doesn’t know where it came from, even Ryder shrugs so not a family name of any sort. But at least he knows what to call his son now.

He has a name.

He _doesn’t_ understand why they’re still sitting here hours later as the sun goes down and the dark creeps in and proves the lighting in this prison really sucks, they’ve opened an empty cell and nothing catastrophic occurred. No one has come back down to tell him _why_ they’re still waiting with Alex and Colby locked in that cell.

He doesn’t want to still be sitting here when the sun comes _back_ up with his head resting against the glass, watching as Alex cradles Colby in his arms, lips pressed into his hair, rocking back and forth.

Michael wants to touch him, wants to touch _them_ and all these hours later he’s trying to remember why they said breaking the glass to get them out was a bad idea.

“Because they said the building would blow up,” Kyle says, he’s rolling a bottle of water between his palms, he’s been trying to get Michael to drink from it but they’ve been sitting there for hours. Alex and Colby haven’t had anything to eat or drink in that entire time, he can wait.

He sits up when he hears the loud footsteps on the metal stairs, his movement prompts Alex to move and he squeezes Colby whispering something in his ear.

Flint stops right in front of the glass, next to Kyle and Alex urges Colby to his feet and then stands himself. Flint touches his hand to the glass and Alex mirrors the movement, Colby grins up at him and Flint smiles gently back at him.

When Michael turns away, he can see that Oliver is using an abandoned cart to balance his laptop on, David and Ryder on either side of him.

“Michael, Kyle we’re going to open the doors now,” Ryder says, he sounds so confident that Michael gets to his feet, Kyle next to him is doing the same and he tries not to smirk at the way that Alex continues to eye Kyle warily.

The last time Alex saw Kyle they were still fighting, he probably doesn’t know what he’s doing there, though to be honest Michael isn’t sure why Kyle felt the need to be there either so he’s not going to be the one explaining it.

Oliver makes a noise and there’s a loud shrill beep before the doors to the five cells still occupied start opening.

Slowly.

Like so slowly that Michael thinks that maybe he should get his hands at the doors and help it along. He’s doing his level best to ignore the way that Alex has backed away from the door opening, the way that he’s got their son behind him, arms out like he means to defend him from them.

Flint stops him by wrapping a hand around his arm when he goes to dart forward, to wrap them up in his arms and pull them out of the prison they don’t need to be in anymore.

“The floors have weight sensors, they should have been deactivated when Oliver started opening the doors but just in case…” Flint says quietly and Michael snarls wordlessly under his breath.

Neither Alex or Colby are moving, _none_ of the other four that they’ve been held with are moving either.

Colby has his arms wrapped around Alex’s waist from behind, holding onto him and Alex squeezes his hands, twisting his head slightly and murmuring something that Michael can’t hear. Colby’s hands drop, and he wraps them around himself like he’s cold, fear etched into every inch of his face as he watches Alex take small halting steps towards the doorway.

Alex touches the edges of the door frame when he reaches it and pauses, Michael thinks he’s holding his breath when he inches his foot out of the cell.

The expression on his face breaks his heart, what was left that wasn’t broken already. Alex is acting like he expects a blow, a trick, the door to come slamming shut in his face or on his hand or something equally horrific.

He takes another step out and when he’s outside the cell he drops to his knees gasping for air, Colby flying out of the cell behind him, careening into his back and wrapping his thin arms around Alex’s shoulders.

Alex sobs, one hand covering Colby’s and the other covering his eyes. Michael moves first, before anyone else can; sliding to his knees right in front of them.

Arms going around them, trying to hold them both as tightly as he can as Alex lays his head on his shoulder and sobs silently.

********************************

They leave Michael huddled around Alex and Colby while they triage the other four, they are all old and quiet and they’re all so docile that he wants to scream ‘you are free’.

He doesn’t, but only because it’s not exactly helpful.

They have a field medic that came with the military team that is assisting them and she works with Kyle to assess their physical condition as best they can.

When only Alex and Colby are left to be looked over Ryder kneels next to his brother. They’ve barely moved, only enough that Colby is now wrapped up in Alex’s arms and Michael is sitting right next to them.

He’s not touching them, Ryder thinks he sees what Ryder sees, Alex is terrified, the only reason he’s not visibly shaking is because he’s got his arms locked around Colby.

“Hey Alex,” Ryder says softly, and Alex’s expression shifts into something closer to despair then terror. Ryder reaches out a hand but doesn’t touch, just watches as Alex’s eyes flicker between it and his face before he finally loosens his hold on Colby enough to touch him.

“Flint said you’d come,” Alex mumbles, the expression on his face screams he didn’t believe him.

“I’m sorry it took me so long,” Ryder says softly. “We need to make sure you’re both okay, make sure we don’t need to take you to a hospital instead of a safe house.”

Alex’s eyes flicker between Ryder and Colby and Michael and then over Ryder’s shoulder where he’s sure Kyle and the medic are waiting patiently.

He bends his head and whispers something that Ryder can’t hear into Colby’s ear, from the way Michael swallows hard he knows he can. Colby twists in Alex’s arms and looks at Michael.

“Do you know who I am?” Michael asks, his voice is shaking.

“You’re my papa,” Colby says quietly, barely a whisper but so matter-of-fact. “Dad says to sit with you? That you’ll protect me?”

There are tears in Michael’s eyes as he cups a big hand around Colby’s head and lets out a gasping breath; he touches shaking fingers to Alex’s cheek and closes his eyes briefly.

Like he still can’t _quite_ believe they’re real.

“I’ll always protect you,” Michael says, Ryder doesn’t think he’s talking to just Colby.

********************************


	5. Chapter 5

**Missing 5/?**

The vehicle is quiet, they’ve moved from the quiet van to a vehicle that screams covert operations if Ryder is being honest with himself. Especially since there’s a line of them. He twists his head and just stares at his brother.

Alex is silent in the backseat, he’s staring blankly out the window at the scenery flying by as David does well over the speed limit. Ryder doesn’t think he’s actually seeing anything they’re passing.

Colby is latched onto his hand with both of his and his face is pressed into his arm, on the other side of him Michael hasn’t taken his eyes off either of them, Ryder thinks he might be afraid they’re going to disappear into thin air if he doesn’t keep two eyes on them at all times.

Ryder swallows thickly and turns back to the front, he rubs a hand over his face then just lets it cover his eyes as they burn.

He wants to scream and sob, he doesn’t because he thinks Alex would find a way to fling himself from the moving vehicle if he did.

He wants his father; the father that taught him how to play baseball and shoot a gun and was at every single football game he ever played in; the father that told him he was no son of his and sneered at David when Ryder had brought him to Thanksgiving and announced he was gay… he wants him to suffer the same anguish he’s been putting Alex through for the last ten years.

They have five safe houses they’re going to be separating to, doctors meeting them at each one to do more thorough checks then the ones that Kyle and the field medic had done which was basically just enough to verify that the chances of anyone keeling over dead was unlikely.

David makes the first turn off and it takes a few moments for the lights of the vehicle following them that he knows Oliver, Patrick and Kyle are in to make the turn.

By necessity it’ll be a lot of random turns and stops and turn arounds and back tracking, when David feels comfortable, he’ll pull into the driveway attached to a pale tan house that quietly murmurs that nothing exciting ever happens here, nothing to see, move along now.

There’s an attached two car garage and David doesn’t open the doors until the other vehicle is idling right beside them, they creep in slowly together.

David closes the doors and Ryder takes an even breath as he steps out with his gun in hand. Patrick is making the same sweep on the other side, and when they’ve cleared the area Ryder opens the back door of the passenger side.

Michael is just staring at him. When he peers inside he can see that Alex is looking across the car at him with an expression of _something_ at least in his eyes instead of the blankness.

“Oliver and I are going to clear the house,” Patrick taps him on the shoulder and Ryder nods.

Michael unsnaps the seat belt and waits until Colby makes eye contact with him before he presses the button to release his, Colby grins and reaches thin fingers down to press the red release button again, when nothing happens he frowns and Michael reaches for the belt and clicks it back into place so Colby can press the button and open it himself.

He laughs and looks over at Alex who manages a smile, looking down at his own seatbelt still locked and Colby presses the red button to release it, grinning up at him.

Alex runs a hand down his hair, presses a kiss to the top of his head and then gently slides Colby across the seat to Michael.

Michael helps him jump out and stands there with one hand on Colby’s shoulder and the other touching the top of the car as they wait for Alex to slide across the seat himself.

He stills looks dazed and lost and mostly not there, except when he looks at Michael and at Colby and Ryder can see the _tiniest_ hint of the brother that he grew up with.

His toes curl when they hit the cool concrete and Ryder scowls, there’d been no extra supplies in the manner of footwear, so they’d had nothing for them to put on their feet.

Michael curls an arm over his shoulder, tugging him into his side which Alex allows, even tilts his head into Michael’s shoulder though both hands go to where Colby has wrapped both _his_ arms around him, hiding his face against Alex’s chest.

“House is clear,” Patrick says from the top of the steps and Ryder nods, waiting for Alex to look at him.

“We can go inside,” Ryder says. “It’ll be warmer, and David was supposed to send someone out to get something else for you to change into.”

“I didn’t know sizes, so I had to guess,” David says. “But I’m sure they’ll fit better if nothing else.”

********************************

It doesn’t feel real, everything taking on that hazy fog that he always associates with being drugged.

He’s terrified he’s going to blink awake and they’re still going to be locked in a cell and Flint isn’t going to be able to hold them off any longer and they’re going to be moved.

“You okay?” Michael’s voice is soft and familiar, he wouldn’t think after ten years that it would still send shivers down his spine, cause his skin to prickle with heat and longing, but it does.

Alex doesn’t know how to answer the question, so he just shrugs, he’s wearing a t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants. He tried to put the jeans on and had to take them off because after years in nothing but the rough material of the scrubs they’d felt so heavy on his skin.

Michael leaves the door open, the light is bright in the hallway and he can hear Colby chattering away at Ryder down the hallway. He aches to draw him close and hide him, he doesn’t need to protect him anymore.

He’ll probably never be able to stop.

He closes his eyes and presses a hand to his chest.

It doesn’t feel real, it’s the type of dream he used to have in the beginning before everything turned into a nightmare that he not only couldn’t get himself out of, but that he couldn’t get Colby out of either.

The bed next to him dips as Michael sits down next to him, still inches between them but Alex can feel the heat radiating from him. He wants to curl into the heat, into _him_. Wants to let Michael shelter and protect him.

“I’m sorry,” Alex says, he doesn’t know what he’s apologizing for. He thinks it might be for not knowing about the gene and having Colby; though he can’t be sorry for Colby. There were times that the few memories he had of Michael and the continued presence of Colby were the only things that kept him sane.

“What do you have to be sorry about?” Michael sounds so baffled.

Alex shrugs. He interlocks his fingers together, staring at them, Michael lays his hand over the top of them and squeezes gently.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about,” Michael says softly, Alex stares at Michael’s hand. Unlinks his fingers and touches Michael’s hand, the last time he’d seen Michael’s hand it had been bloody and broken and his dad had been dragging him out of the toolshed in tears.

“Max and Isobel,” Michael says, swallowing loudly in the silence of the bedroom, “they convinced me to have someone look at it a couple years ago.”

Alex inches closer to him, leaning into his side a bit to soak up his heat, Michael slides an arm over his shoulder tugging him incrementally closer. Alex closes his eyes and leans his head against his shoulder.

Michael presses a hand to the side of his head to keep him there and twists a bit to press a kiss against the top of his head.

Alex breathes, just closes his eyes and breathes.

********************************

Ryder taps on the door to the room that Alex had disappeared into, the door is open so he can see them sitting on the edge of the bed, Michael’s arm over Alex’s shoulder, Alex leaning into his shoulder.

“Patrick and Oliver brought food back,” he says, he’s not sure what they’ve been feeding them but he’s sure it was crap.

Michael stands first, waiting for Alex to push himself to his feet, he sways a bit and Michael tugs him back under his arm.

Ryder buries his anger, he wishes he’d felt comfortable enough stopping at a drive through on the way, but he’d really wanted Alex and Colby safely behind doors that are being guarded while they wait for the news that Jesse Manes and anyone working with him are in shackles arms and legs both.

“I panic bought basically everything on the menu,” Patrick says when they walk into the kitchen, David and Oliver are unloading the bags, Kyle is leaning against the counter silently judging the state of their cholesterol levels and Colby is already at the table. He’s on his knees in a chair as he looks at the mound of burgers and nuggets and fries that they keep taking out of the bags. He looks really confused. “There’s salads in there too, just in case, and I bought out what parfaits they had made up.”

Michael guides Alex into a chair to the left of Colby, then stands behind them, like he can’t decide if he wants to sit next to Alex or on the other side of Colby. Colby solves the dilemma by climbing into Alex’s lap and Michael slides into the chair he just vacated.

“So nuggets or cheeseburger little man?” Ryder asks, it breaks him a little more when Colby looks at Alex in confusion, like he doesn’t know what they are. It strikes him suddenly that he _doesn’t_, that he’s likely never had a happy meal and never had to decide whether he was a nugget kid or a cheeseburger kid or a hamburger kid or anything.

Ryder has to turn away, has to stare out the dark window and breathe through his nose and swallow hard, his eyes burn as he counts to twenty. David touches his back and he nods.

“How about a little bit of a couple of things, then you can decide what you like better, okay?” Ryder says softly, he turns back around, and Alex is watching him with dark eyes.

Ryder tries to smile at him and Alex’s lips curve up as much as Ryder thinks they can under the circumstances.

********************************

Alex is on his side, one arm over where Colby is curled up next to him under the blankets. His hands twitch in his sleep.

“Are you going to stand there all night?” Alex asks, he can see the outline of someone hovering just by the door, the light in the hallway is off though.

“I was just checking,” Michael’s voice is soft.

“Do you want to lay down with us?” he asks, he brushes a hand over Colby’s head, keeping him close. Colby continues to sleep on, he doesn’t remember ever sleeping as soundly as Colby does.

Michael comes into the room silently, he’s changed out of the jeans and into a pair of thin sweats and a t-shirt, he lays down on top of the blankets and Colby is between them, protected by both of them. He turns on his side and Alex just looks at him.

Watches the way that Michael holds himself apart, not touching because he’s not certain his touch would be accepted.

Alex reaches out, lays his hand on Michael’s arm, just touching him, trying to ground himself in the reality of the moment.

This is real, they’re not in the cell that never got dark enough to get good sleep, that was always so quiet that it was hard sometimes to concentrate on anything besides the lack of anything.

They’re not confined to a tiny bed that barely fits both him and Colby; the room is dark, Colby is asleep and calm, and he has Michael looking at him with tears in his eyes looking ten years past the young man that Alex always saw when he closed his eyes and thought about him.

When he goes to draw away Michael folds his hand in his own, presses his lips against Alex’s knuckles and there’s a stuttering breath.

Like Michael is trying to hold back a sob, when he releases his hand Alex cups it around the curve of Michael’s jaw. Rubs his thumb over his cheek, over his lips that are trying to form a smile.

Alex just stares at him, tries to catalog all the ways he's different and the same, he thinks Michael might be doing the same. He drops his hand to Michael’s shoulder and closes his eyes, waits for long moments until Michael’s arm drapes over them both, resting against his back.

They’re safe now, curled up in this bed in a dark room with Michael steady and warm near them and his brother outside with a gun ready to take down anyway who tries to abscond with them.

********************************


	6. Chapter 6

**Missing 6/?**

The dipping of the bed and David’s cold feet brushing up against his legs wakes him up.

“My watch?” Ryder mutters and tries to muster the energy to climb out of the warm bed.

“Oliver and Patrick have it,” David wraps an arm around him, pulling him close, pressing a kiss to his shoulder.

He should get up, it’s not just up to Oliver and Patrick and David to keep watch and make sure they’re safe, Ryder should be out there with one of them playing crappy card games and monitoring the cameras.

“Go back to sleep,” David says softly.

“Alex and Colby,” Ryder says and David’s arm tightens around him.

“They’re fine, Alex got up to search the kitchen for crackers about an hour ago, kids stomach is not happy about fast food,” David’s lips brush against the back of neck.

“He’s okay?” Ryder is fast blinking sleep out of his eyes. “We should…”

“I already have a list and sent it off to the team rotating on with us, they’re going to bring groceries,” David murmurs, his arm is heavy over him.

“They’re okay, right?” Ryder asks, “you’d tell me if they weren’t?”

“They’re fine, probably back asleep, Guerin’s in there with them, they’re fine,” he soothes and Ryder tries to relax. Closes his eyes and links his fingers together with David’s squeezing tight.

Ryder should say something about Michael being in there, but Alex has acknowledged that Colby is Michael’s son, Alex let Michael touch him and be near him when he wouldn’t let anyone else besides Colby.

He’s not a kid anymore, he’s not a teen with a crush, he’s an adult with a kid and if Michael being in the room with them makes Alex feel safe enough to sleep then Ryder will do everything in his power to make sure that Michael is always exactly where Alex needs him to be.

********************************

Michael wakes up to Colby staring at him from where he’s laying. He can’t see Alex on the other side of him, he’d freak out, might still, but Colby is calm and he doesn’t think Colby would be calm if something had happened to Alex.

“Good morning,” he says, voice sleep rough and he hesitates before he reaches out a hand to tousle Colby’s hair.

“Dad said to stay here with Papa until you woke up, because you might get scared if you woke up and we were both gone,” Colby says, likely repeating exactly what _Alex_ had said back to him.

“Where did dad go?” Michael asks, there’s a twist in his stomach at the words.

Alex is a dad, _he’s_ a dad and their kid is looking at him with wide eyes that are copies of Alex’s and hair that is a mix of them both. That’s Alex’s nose on Colby’s face, but his lips curve the same way that Michael’s do.

There are pieces of both of them all over Colby, for everyone to see. Anyone who looks at the three of them together is going to _know_ they’re family.

“He’s checking to see if they brought real food, because the food last night made my stomach hurt,” Colby makes a face. “It tasted good though? And it didn’t make me get sick in the toilet like the red stuff they gave us once, it just made my stomach hurt.”

“Red stuff?” Michael asks as he sits up, the air is cool against his skin and Colby shivers as he crawls out of the blankets as well.

“The food they gave us to eat, it was mostly brown stuff or white stuff,” Colby scowls as he walks on his knees to the edge of the bed, “It was all mushy and didn’t taste like anything which dad always said was a good thing because if it tasted like it looked we wouldn’t be able to eat it.”

Michael slides out of bed and holds out a hand for Colby to take as he jumps once on the bed and then down off it.

Alex is in the kitchen sitting at the table as Ryder and Kyle move around each other to make breakfast, David is leaning against a counter with a coffee cup in hand just looking bemused.

“I waited for him to wake up like you said,” Colby is saying as Alex pulls him into his lap, pressing a kiss to the side of his head and smoothing a hand down his hair.

He’s almost ten, he should be sitting in his own chair but Michael’s not going to say a word, not when Alex looks 5% more relaxed then he had when they walked in. He thinks a lot of the two of them clinging to each other is the security of each other since everyone else in the room is a stranger or someone Alex hasn’t seen in ten years and Colby hasn’t ever met.

Michael takes the chair right next to Alex since it’s empty and he sets a hand against the back of Alex’s chair, watching as Colby talks and Alex nods along to whatever he’s saying. Michael doesn’t even focus on the words, just lets the sound of Colby chattering and the warm press of Alex’s back against his hand wash over him.

They’re safe, he’s safe, they’re _all_ safe.

“I need to talk to Max and Isobel,” he says when Ryder is putting a plate of what looks like scrambled eggs in front of Alex.

“I’ll get someone over there with some stuff,” Ryder says, he looks at the doorway and Michael glances over his shoulder to see Oliver there with what looks like a cheeseburger left over from the night before in one hand and a cellphone in the other.

“I’ll take care of it,” Oliver nods and wanders away.

“Water or coffee or juice?” Kyle is asking Alex when he turns back.

“Coffee,” Alex says, there’s such wistfulness in his voice that Michael wants to insist he have the coffee, but then Alex shakes his head and sighs, “let’s not chance it though, water for both of us.”

********************************

“Your dad slipped the net,” David says in a hushed voice when Ryder is coming out of the bathroom rubbing a towel over his head. He stops dead, heart in his throat and just stares at him.

“How did he…?” Ryder blinks, reminds himself to breathe. He _doesn’t_ make a beeline out of the room to check that Alex and Colby are still safely ensconced in the living room with Michael and Kyle.

“They’re looking into it, they don’t think he had any help,” David says, which frees a tiny bit of the weight off his shoulders.

For all that Flint sent the pictures and did everything to keep Alex and Colby where Ryder could finally get to them, for all that Hunter didn’t try and stop him… they are the oldest. They are Jesse Manes’ pride and joys, the two boys following directly behind him in his footsteps. They are loyal to their father in a way that Ryder hasn’t been since he successfully got out from under his thumb and the way Alex has _never_ been.

“They want to get a statement from Alex,” David says, he loops an arm around Ryder, tugging him into a loose hug, the door is shut to the room they’re sharing so he doesn’t care that he’s just about clinging to him in return.

“Tomorrow, let them have today before we make Alex start talking about the shit our dad put him through,” Ryder says into David’s shoulder and David nods his head.

“I don’t think you should be there for it,” he says softly.

“He’s my brother,” Ryder says almost desperately. He’s not been able to do right by his brother in years, he _should_ be in that room offering moral support while Alex talks through the horror that has been his life for the last over ten years.

“You’ll still be his brother,” David murmurs, he backs away, just enough so that he can look Ryder in his eye. “You don’t want to be there for this.”

“You know what they did to him,” Ryder says. He swallows loudly, he can vividly remember the look on Flint’s face.

Can remember him telling Ryder that their father had done and had allowed done things that Flint found horrific.

“Some of it is spelled out in horrifying detail in after action reports, some of it is buried in innuendo so deep that if I’m being honest with myself I’m really hoping it’s _not_ what it fucking sounds like because I’m with Flint then, I don’t know how your dad could allow any of it to be done to his kid.”

Ryder closes his eyes, reminds himself again that breathing is not optional and lays his forehead against David’s shoulder. David presses his hand to the back of his head and breathes with him.

********************************

Oliver has set the laptop in the middle of the coffee table, it’s got a whole bunch of electronic gizmos attached to it that Oliver had assured them kept anyone from being able to find out where they were.

There was a pointed heavy look that Michael is trying not to read too much into, but he also thinks it means they’re going to be having a discussion soon about how Jesse Manes is still wandering around out there a free man.

“Michael?” Max’s face appears in the screen on the laptop and there’s some movement and Isobel’s face appears right next to him, Liz right over his shoulder and he’s sure that Maria is somewhere off to the side not seeing the need to fight for screen time.

“Hey,” Michael waves a hand and even with the absolute shitty webcam picture he can see Max’s eyeroll.

“We thought you were dead in a ditch somewhere,” Isobel says, “what’s the point of having a cellphone if you’re never going to answer it.”

His cellphone is locked in a box somewhere along with Kyle’s phone. He’s hopeful they’ll get them back when it’s all said and done, it’s not the fanciest model but he also doesn’t want to have to invest in a new one.

“Is Kyle with you?” Liz asks, nudging at Max’s shoulder until Max visibly sighs and moves the laptop further away from him so he can see all four of them.

“I’m here,” Kyle says, he leans over the back of the couch, “everything okay?”

“Your mom freaked out, I told her you had some work conference, managed to get into your calendar and add something, but if it lasts longer than a week more than just your mom is going to start asking questions,” Liz says.

“You guys are okay though? Any news yet?” Max asks, he’s staring directly at Michael, like he can see into his brain through the laptop and find out for himself how close they are to finding Alex.

“Got someone I want you guys to meet,” Michael says, he lets out a slow even breath and looks over to where Alex is curled up in an armchair, Colby isn’t sitting on him for once, he’s sort of perched on the arm leaning into his side though. He holds out a hand and Colby looks at Alex, Alex just manages a small smile at him and nudges him in Michael’s direction.

Colby keeps looking over at his dad as he takes the ten steps from the arm chair where Alex is to the couch where Michael is sitting, Michael isn’t sure but he think Colby might be taking the steps so slowly because he’s waiting for Alex to stop him.

Instead Colby sinks down on the couch right next to him, Michael lets his arm settle behind him, not touching him until Colby leans into his side.

Isobel and Maria are already crying when Michael looks back at the laptop, Liz has her arms wrapped around Max’s neck and the smile on her face is close to incandescent. Max is…

Max looks stunned.

“This is Colby,” Michael says softly.

“Hello,” Colby says politely, though his hand wraps around Michael’s arm tightly and he turns his face into Michael’s arm.

“Hi Colby,” Max says, he swallows visibly. “Does that mean?” he starts and Michael knows what he’s asking for, what he’s asking _about_ and he looks over at where Alex has his knees pulled up to his chest.

He looks so uncertain, and it takes a minute of Michael staring at him, trying to convince him with only facial expressions that his friends will always be his friends. When he finally sighs and stands, Alex takes the steps over just as slowly as Colby had.

Maria makes a noise that could be a half choked off scream when Alex settles next to Colby, he’s perched on the edge of the couch and he’s not going to last long Michael doesn’t think.

Liz reaches out like she can touch Alex through the laptop and Maria has moved so she’s hugging Liz. They’re all beaming and when Michael looks over, he can see a hint of what might one day be the start of a smile on Alex’s lips.

********************************


	7. Chapter 7

**Missing 7/?**  


“How long are we going to be here?” Alex asks Ryder later, after they’ve disconnected the video call and Colby is curled up with his head in his lap, eyes closed. Alex keeps his voice low and his hand gentle where it’s stroking over Colby’s hair.

Ryder doesn’t say anything, just takes a long even breath and glances over at David who Alex thinks might be his _boyfriend_? He’s not seen them kiss or anything, but they touch a _lot_ more than any completely straight guys he’s ever met.

If he is, he knows their dad is likely absolutely infuriated about that, there’s a tiny small part of him that is entirely too gleeful about it, he spent a good chunk of his teenage years being compared to his brothers and found lacking.

It’s the way that Ryder won’t meet his eyes that has him swallowing roughly, that tells him that they’re here for the long haul.

There’s only one reason why they wouldn’t let them go back to Roswell right away, if it wasn’t safe, if…

He counts backwards from ten hand stilling in Colby’s hair. Trying to ground himself in his son.

It doesn’t work, the coffee table and all its contents tremble in front of him and out of the corner of his eye he can see Michael and Kyle exchange a look and the sharp shake of Michael’s head.

“Dad?” Colby says softly, barely a whisper and he can hear the alarm in Colby’s voice. Colby sits up slowly and wraps his arms around him, holding him as tight as his thin arms can manage. Alex presses a hand to the back of Colby’s head, hides his face in his hair.

“We’re going to find him,” Ryder says, “he’s not going to touch either of you ever again.”

It sounds like a promise and Alex _wants_ to believe him. He doesn’t know if he can

Alex chokes back a sob, Colby squeezes him just that slightest bit more. Michael presses the tips of his fingers against his shoulder and Alex keeps counting.

Forward now, slow, even counts until he doesn’t feel like screaming.

It takes a long time.

********************************

Colby is asleep between them, head resting on both their pillows, he managed to convince Michael to climb under the covers with them this time, which sends the butterflies in Alex’s stomach fluttering.

And also fills him with dread, if Michael touches him in some way that may be construed as sexual in nature Alex isn’t sure he won’t start screaming or have a panic attack, or possibly do both at the same time.

Colby is asleep between them though, so nothing is going to happen right now.

“I deferred a year,” Michael is saying quietly, “I was kind of a mess and my hand…” Alex squeezes that hand, it’s not the bloody mess he remembers the last time he saw it, the last time he saw _Michael_ before he appeared like the best kind of mirage outside of his cell door.

He’d half feared that his dad had made good on his threats to put Michael in a cell right next to them.

“I wasn’t even going to go at all, Max and Is didn’t _want_ me to go, but,” Michael breathes. “Their mom is kind of a force of nature, didn’t want me as a kid but I wasn’t fast enough sneaking out of Max’s room one morning and then she finally noticed my hand and did the math and came up with abuse...” he shrugs.

“She wasn’t wrong,” Alex mumbles and Michael squeezes his hand that time.

“I’d aged out of the system by that point but apparently that didn’t matter, she got a second bed for Max’s room and when I finally told them I wasn’t going to go to school at all she told me I was, that I wasn’t going to waste away my potential in Roswell.”

“You said Max and Isobel convinced you to have someone look at it?”

“Yeah, them and their mom finally talked me into it a couple years ago, I was working full time, have a good job making good money but the Evan’s paid for everything, I think they felt guilty about leaving me behind or something,” Michael flexes his fingers within Alex’s grip, he sounds so bewildered by the fact. “Was like four surgeries and they all sucked,” Michael’s mouth twists and he laughs harshly, though also quietly so as to not wake up Colby.

“Why did you wait?” he asks, running his thumb along the back of Michael’s hand.

“I don’t know,” Michael shrugs, “Fear, I guess, maybe. When it happened I didn’t have the money or help to go have it looked at without a lot of questions being asked and you weren’t there so it would have been my word against your dads and…” Alex looks away, looks down at the top of Colby’s head and focuses on that instead of the anguish on Michael’s face for not knowing where they were.

Its progress, he thinks, that he doesn’t jump out of his skin or off the bed when Michael cups his face in his hand.

“In my nightmares I never thought he’d have you locked up in a cell like a fucking criminal, I thought he’d force marched you right into basic or something. I’m probably going to hell but I want to kill him,” Michael mutters. “And if Kyle hadn’t started digging around, we might still not even know.”

“Kyle,” Alex says softly. He’s not sure why Kyle is there, it’s been over ten years but he can vividly remember their last fight, it hadn’t even been the one at prom that everyone _else_ remembers. It had happened days later when their dads had thrown them together for a random Sunday hang out at the cabin.

He was never sure why he and Kyle even needed to be there for those, it’s not like his dad or Jim Valenti even talked to either of them after they arrived, just sending them out for firewood and do something outside, don’t care what just stay out of our hair.

Alex could have stayed home and been ignored.

That last fight had been snarled words though no thrown punches because bruises would have to be explained to one or both of their dads; Kyle blaming _Alex_ for Liz dumping him even though Kyle could have just let him walk away and Liz would have continued to date him blissfully aware that her boyfriend was a homophobic dick.

“Why would…” Alex starts and stops. He was going to say care, but he knows that the Kyle asleep down the hall cares, now anyway. He spent the morning making up carefully constructed menus for Alex and Colby that are filled with the blandest of bland foods, Alex isn’t a fan, has never _been_ a fan of white rice and plain chicken breast.

But even he can see that Colby and he need to ease back into normal foods with stuff that won’t shock their systems so that’s where they’re at.

It’s obvious to anyone that knew him in high school that Kyle is not the same person that he was back then.

“Liz has a theory that he’s bi or something,” Michael shrugs. “Not that he’s ever said anything, he has an on again off again thing with Max’s partner Jenna, but Isobel swears that she saw him kissing a guy at one of these drive-in fundraiser things she does.”

Alex doesn’t say anything, just lays there and lets Michael’s hand on his arm ground him, he breathes. Even breaths in and out. He doesn’t think about long ago fights with his dad where his father had thrown Kyle in his face.

_Why can’t you be more like Kyle?_ over and over again ad nauseam, he hopes his dad _knows_ that Kyle is more like _him_ then he’ll ever be like Kyle.

He hopes it burns him that even the model of heterosexuality that he’d thrown in Alex’s face at every opportunity turned out to not be so straight after all.

“He’ll apologize to you,” Michael muses, “when he doesn’t think you’re going to run at the first opportunity. He’s big on apologies and righting wrongs, I think he might have a checklist or something. And he’s a doctor now, so get used to him checking your blood pressure and your cholesterol levels and just basically being a mother hen. Liz says it’s the way he shows he cares, but I’d honestly really rather he didn’t.”

“You and Liz talk a lot,” Alex says and Michael, for lack of a better word, beams at him.

“Liz is my lab buddy, because we’re not allowed to be in the labs by ourselves anymore,” Michael says and Alex is sure there’s a story there but it’s dark and the bed is warm and he kind of wants to sleep. To bask in Colby curled up next to him and the warm weight of Michael’s arm on him.

Michael seems to sense this, he moves his hand to stroke over the side of his head and raises up on the other arm to lean over Colby to press a soft kiss to his forehead, his lips linger and Alex breathes out a sigh.

“Go to sleep,” he murmurs and Alex does.

********************************

David disappears with Alex into a room that would have probably been an office if this were an actual house with a woman that had appeared in the kitchen that morning.

“They want to get his official statement,” Ryder says, he’s staring at the closed door, Michael is kind of shocked that Ryder isn’t in there.

“Why aren’t you in there with them?” Michael asks, he knows why _he’s_ not, Alex wants him to stay with Colby but he also doesn’t want Michael to know anything about what happened to him these last ten years.

“David told me I didn’t want to be,” Ryder says, “And that was after Flint already told me not to look at his medical files if I didn’t want more reasons to want our dad dead.”

Michael nods, the way that Alex is skittish and scared all the time screams that he wasn’t just locked up in a cell and ignored with Colby.

The fact that he was even in that cell means that Jesse Manes likely stopping viewing Alex as his kid from the moment he went in it, after that he was nothing more than an object to be used, he tries not to think of long ago nightmares of his childhood when he, Max and Isobel feared what would happen to them if they were found out.

Alex has likely lived through some of those nightmares, while Michael has been just living his life, going to college and working and getting his hand fixed and working.

Fucking around with random women and men, never more than a handful of times because he wasn’t a relationship type guy.

Except in the deepest recesses of his brain he _is_ really, though he only wants that relationship with Alex. He wants to crawl into a bed they share, in a house that is theirs, with their kid that he’d never even factored into the dream before down the hall, maybe another one that will have the childhood that Colby missed out on, that _Michael_ missed out on.

Michael kind of wants to dote on Alex hand and foot, he thinks he’ll want to do that even if Colby is their only kid.

“You mentioned the Rosa situation to him yet?” Kyle asks when he finally joins them on the couch, he’s been in the kitchen writing up an _actual_ meal plan for the week on a chalkboard that appeared that morning.

“No,” Michael curls an arm over Colby’s shoulder as the boy leans into his side. “Not the type of thing you pepper into random conversation.”

“Who’s Rosa?” Colby asks, leaning his head back so he can look up at Michael.

“Liz’s sister Rosa?” Ryder asks, he flops down in the arm chair, long legs stretched out in front him. “She’s still in the hospital right? Some sort of overdose or something? Those two other girls were killed with her?”

“Yeah, that’s what they said,” Kyle mutters. “Except she was clean at the time so…”

“Really? I could have sworn,” Ryder is staring at them, Michael wonders what he’s looking for.

“They kept it quiet,” Kyle says finally, because honestly Michael could give two shits about Rosa Ortecho… except Isobel was _is_ fucking crazy about her, even after ten years.

“Kate and Jasmine _did_ both OD, but there’s crime scene photos that my dad and his deputies took when they found them and Rosa had marks on her neck and mouth, it looked like someone tried to strangle her and didn’t succeed before they got interrupted.”

By Isobel, Michael wants to interject, who doesn’t remember a single solitary thing about that day and yet _still_ blames herself for not getting there sooner. Because she and Max had been too busy dealing with Michael and his hand and his refusal to let Max heal it because _what the fuck, Max? Why don’t we just scream from the rooftops to Jesse fucking Manes that we’re not human!?_.

And that was smack in the middle of the time period when Isobel’s blackouts were so bad that she lost entire days, she’s had her mind locked down like a fortress since then until she opened her mind back up to go mind hopping in the hopes of finding Alex.

He hopes that it’s not going to lead to the re-emergence of the blackouts that they still don’t know the cause of but they’re all firmly of the opinion that someone _else_ was causing them.

Michael looks down at where Colby is quiet next to him, he’s got his hands folded together in his lap.

“They never found anything?” Ryder asks.

“Case went cold pretty immediately, no prints, no DNA nothing,” Kyle says quietly, “and Rosa’s been catatonic since.”

********************************


	8. Chapter 8

**Missing 8/?**  


Isobel is making lists, there’s lists of things they’ll need to make rooms in Max’s house habitable for Alex and Colby, because they will move into the Airstream that Michael persists in keeping or the tiny one-bedroom apartment that is about the size of Max’s kitchen, over Isobel’s dead body.

She has compiled a short list of apartments for Michael and Alex to look at that have multiple bedrooms and immediate openings, she also has a small list of houses that will be perfect for them but those will take longer to get them into, so apartments for the interim.

There’s a list of furnishings that will be needed and a list of things that she’s seen that her new nephew _will_ have in his room when they finally bring him home.

She’d figured at some point that they’d be dealing with a surprise baby from one Michael’s one-night stands, he’s always said he’s careful, but he was almost always impaired as well during those hookups so she’s sure that he was never as careful as he swears he was.

But Colby is not a chubby baby left on their doorstep, he’s an absolutely adorable ten-year-old who had spent most of the time on the video call leaning into Michael’s side and latched onto Alex’s arm. At least he’d made eye contact with them though, and he’d smiled.

Alex had been skittish and quiet, and except for a brief moment when Michael had first dragged him onto the call he’d stared at his hands, or a spot above where the laptop camera was or with his head twisted away.

_Therapy!_ she starts a new list.

“What are you doing?” Maria leans over her shoulder.

“What I do best,” Isobel says, she’s got seven Amazon wishlists going right now, the one open on her screen is filled with school books for Colby.

“School books?” Maria asks, she’s half dressed up which means she’s been at the facility visiting Rosa.

“Well I’m sure that Alex’s monster of a father wasn’t giving them anything to promote learning,” Isobel says defensively. “It’s Michael and Alex’s kid, so he’s either Einstein smart or a village idiot,” she purses her lips and stares at the list, “he wasn’t drooling enough to be a village idiot, but we’ll start slow and build up just in case.”

“You really think Alex is going to be able to send his kid off to school like nothing ever happened?” Maria asks with a snort.

“I already requested information about home schooling, and therapy is on a different list,” Isobel states. She scrolls through the page she’s on, not really seeing anything on it. “How was she?” she finally asks softly.

She can feel Maria’s eyes on her and she doesn’t look over, she doesn’t want to see Maria judging her life choices. She judges them harshly enough herself, she doesn’t need any assistance telling herself that she’s doing the wrong things.

She’s been doing the wrong things since she was a teenager and she found Rosa half dead in a cave and Kate and Jasmine _actually_ dead. Rosa has been catatonic since that day, she’s spent ten years sitting in a hospice room, locked in her own mind while Isobel has been going to college and living her life.

And not even the life that they’d wanted, but a half-life because Rosa was the only girl that Isobel had ever wanted to touch and any time a guy touches her it feels wrong in ways she can’t even articulate.

Her therapist says she’s been through a trauma though they’ve never been able to pinpoint what the trauma is; Isobel is sure it’s something that happened on that day that Jasmine and Kate died and Rosa might as well have, but she can’t even tell her therapist about it because half of what happened that day they’re sure is alien related and the other half she doesn’t even remember.

“You could go see her yourself and see how she’s doing first hand,” Maria says finally.

“You know why I don’t go,” Isobel says and Maria rolls her eyes at her.

Liz and Max come through the front door loudly, and they can hear them talking quietly before the appear in the kitchen.

Max is in uniform and Liz must have been helping out at the Crashdown again because she’s in her uniform. Max has an envelope in his hand that he sets down on the pad that Isobel has been carefully constructing her lists on.

“Pictures,” he says, pressing a kiss to the top of her head as he makes his way to the refrigerator.

“Thursday’s casserole thing is in the oven already,” Isobel says as she dumps the pictures out. “Where did these come from?”

“Ryder sent them,” Liz says as she pours herself a glass of wine and holds the bottle up questioningly, Maria nods and Isobel shrugs. “Took like an hour to get through all the security things to get to the drop box just to download them, and Max went and printed them himself because my lunch wasn’t long enough to do both.”

There’s mostly pictures of Colby and Alex, some of Michael interspersed in, Isobel doesn’t think she’s ever seen Michael smile like that.

Not ever.

But he’s there, smiling that huge smile at Alex, at Colby, just in general.

She wants to destroy Jesse Manes. Her brother could have _had_ this, could have had Alex and a chubby baby Colby and that smile on his face for the last ten years.

She looks up and Max is looking at her, beer in hand and his eyes focused on her. He sees it too, and she knows that he’s in agreement.

Ryder and whoever else is looking to lock up Jesse Manes better find him first, because if Isobel and Max do he will be a drooling vegetable who won’t even know his own name.

********************************

The sun is just going down when the door that has remained firmly closed for most of the day opens up.

David and Agent Bennigan come out, they both look pale and tired, Alex doesn’t follow.

David squats in front of the couch where Colby has been pressed into Michael’s side as they wait for Alex to finish.

“I think your dad could use a hug right now,” David says and he looks over to where the door to the office is still ajar and Alex has not appeared.

Colby clambers to his feet when David backs away, then tugs on Michael’s hand when he doesn’t move along with him.

“I’ll get everything formally typed up then sent back over so he can review and sign it,” Agent Bennigan says as she tugs on a coat that even though Ryder hasn’t been outside he knows it’s too warm for.

David just nods and she leaves.

“Do you think he’ll eat something if I warm it up?” Kyle asks. He and Michael had tag teamed dinner and made some chicken wrap type thing that was reminiscent of something that Arturo or Kyle’s mom had made in the past.

“You can try, he might need some time,” David says and Kyle looks determined when he goes into the kitchen to put something on a plate that Alex might eat.

“That bad?” Ryder asks following David into the room they’re sharing, David touches his cheek gently after the door is closed. “David?”

“You said you had the test done when you went into the service,” David says absently.

“Yeah, I told you that, it was negative for the gene.”

“We need to have them run again,” David says, “by a facility not tied to the military in any way.”

Ryder swallows, a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Your dad, he knew that your brother was positive for the gene, he told him that you _all_ were positive for the gene, you, Hunter, Flint; but Alex being his only gay kid… well he locked him up _because_ he was positive, waited until they had confirmation that he was pregnant…”

“Why didn’t he just have it terminated?” Ryder asks faintly.

“Alex thinks that doctors convinced him not to, that it was originally your dads’ intention to terminate it and then force Alex off to basic, keep him under control by threatening Michael, his friends. The doctors seemed to see it as an opportunity to have a live guinea pig to track the pregnancy through to birth, not sure why they would care about it, but your dad seemed to agree.”

Ryder wraps his arms around him, leans his forehead against his shoulder and feels David’s arms grip him.

“We’re going to find him,” David says softly, and Ryder nods his agreement. He’s pretty sure his dad should be hoping to be found by anyone _but_ them, because he thinks he could go off to prison for murder happy if it meant that Alex, that _they_ would be safe.

********************************

Alex isn’t sitting at the table in the center of the room when Colby leads them in, he’s pressed into a dark corner, legs pulled up to his chest.

“Dad?” Colby says, he keeps hold of Michael’s hand, leading him along behind him, only letting go when he squeezes in close to Alex, wrapping his arms around his neck tightly until Alex lets out a shuddering breath and clutches Colby tight to him.

“It’s okay dad,” Colby says softly, “It’s okay,” over and over again, his hand is glowing faintly on the back of Alex’s neck and Michael knows they need to talk about that, need to talk about the alien thing and how Alex and Colby suddenly fit into it.

Because Alex was very obviously the reason that things in the living room were suddenly moving, Colby is obviously trying to heal his dad even though there’s nothing _physically_ wrong with him.

This is probably not the time he thinks, as he sits down near them, touching his hand gently against Alex’s leg, squeezing lightly to let him know he’s there.

Alex lifts his head and the look in his eyes, there’s such _despair_ there, Michael doesn’t know how to fix it. How to fix any of it.

He slides closer, just enough that if Alex wanted to, he could hold onto them both. Alex reaches out a hand to him and he takes it, presses his lips to his palm and then lets Alex lean both him and Colby into his arms.

Lets Alex rest his head on his shoulder and cry into his t-shirt. Feels Colby squirm enough so that he’s equally on both of them, wrapping an arm over Michael’s neck so he can be holding onto them both. He keeps his hold loose, so Alex won’t feel like he’s trapping him in his embrace but when he doesn’t squirm away Michael takes the chance and puts a hand on the back of his head, strokes through his hair lightly.

The light tap at the door causes Alex to flinch and Colby makes soft noises in response.

“It’s just Kyle,” Michael murmurs and sure enough when he twists his head enough to see the door he can see Kyle there with the plate they’d set aside for Alex in his hands, a bottle of water under his arm.

“Do you think you can try and eat something?” Kyle asks gently when he comes in, he pushes the door mostly closed with his foot before stopping a distance away.

“I don’t,” Alex makes a face, twisting his head away so he’s hiding it in Colby’s hair and Kyle can’t see that he’s been crying. Kyle lets out silent breath, biting on his lower lip and the expression on his face is something that Michael has come to know.

It’s his, ‘I’ve made a decision’ face and half the time it ends up with Michael and Liz being banned from the labs or Max running off and doing something epically stupid.

“I’m sorry,” Kyle says, he sets the plate to the side and sits, legs folding easily together because he’s the asshole who does yoga with Isobel and Jenna and does it because he actually enjoys it and not because he’s checking them out. “I was an epic asshole, Colby don’t say that word, in high school, my therapist says that I likely had some inkling that I wasn’t totally straight and that I took my fears that my dad would disown me like your dad was freaking out on you out _on_ you because you’d been my best friend since we were like two and that the chances of you telling me to take a hike were pretty slim.”

Alex has lifted his head from Colby’s and is staring at him, Michael is staring at him too because Kyle can babble with the best of them but Jesus.

“I did tell you to fuck off,” Alex says softly, his cheeks are wet, and his eyes are bright but there’s a spark there that isn’t despair and fear. Michael kind of hates that Kyle is the cause of that spark, but he also is just the tiniest bit grateful.

“Yeah,” Kyle shrugs, “but you also kept talking to me so…”

Alex leans into his side, Michael slides an arm around his shoulder, holding him loosely.

“Michael said you were the reason they started looking for me,” Alex says.

“Yeah, therapy, you know, I have a lot of amends to make, most of them are to you, kind of hard to do that if I didn’t know where you were,” Kyle glances over at Michael. “Plus my dad died, a couple years ago…” Kyle takes a deep breath. “He left me a bunch of journals, some of them talked about you, about fears that he had that your dad had done something unforgiveable to you.”

Alex hugs Colby tight to him, Michael thinks its almost a reflex, to hold onto to their son tightly.

“We were kind of afraid that he’d murdered you, buried you in the desert somewhere and we’d never find you.”

********************************


	9. Chapter 9

**Missing 9/?**  


“You didn’t tell me that your dad wrote about Alex in his journals,” Michael says, when he corners Kyle after Alex takes Colby in to get ready for bed.

“I told Max about it when I found the entries,” Kyle says, he winces at the expression on Michael’s face. “And that, right there, is why Max didn’t want me to tell you, not until we knew for sure what had happened to him.”

“I’m an adult, been an adult for a lot of years,” Michael mutters.

“You talked to Alex about the other thing yet?” Kyle asks, he raises an eyebrow at him and Michael rolls his eyes in return.

“Not really been a good time.”

“There’s never going to be a _good_ time, but you can’t tell me that his brother didn’t notice that we had a mild earthquake in the living room when Alex freaked out about his dad still being out there, and I’m fairly sure _you_ didn’t miss the fact that your kid was trying to heal him in that office, glow was faint enough but I still saw it.”

Michael breathes, just steady in and out breaths like him and Max have been working on. He doesn’t want to even think about how Alex now apparently has their powers, he’d kind of expected Colby would end up with something.

But Alex, Alex is 100% human, if there’s a way for humans to be able to gain access to their powers… well Alex is bright enough Michael is sure he could figure out a way. But he’s also sure that Alex suddenly ending up with telekinesis was not something Alex figured out how to unlock while _locked_ up.

And he doesn’t even want to try and figure out how Colby has healing as his power when that isn’t Michael’s.

Or at least not one that Michael has ever been able to access, maybe they’ll find out they all can do everything.

“Alex hasn’t said anything,” Michael says finally.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but Alex doesn’t actually _start_ conversations, he’ll join them when asked a point blank question but other than that,” Kyle rubs a hand over his face, he looks tired and Michael wonders if he’s actually sleeping when he goes into the room by himself or if lays awake and thinks of all the ways this entire situation could go sideways and Jesse Manes somehow ends up with his hands on Alex and Colby again.

“I’ll think of something,” Michael says.

He’s sure it’s going to go horribly, he just hopes it’s not so horrible that at the end of it Alex wants nothing more to do with him.

********************************

Alex is already sleeping when Michael goes into the room he’s been sharing with them, he stands there at the edge of the bed and wonders if he should just go bunk down in the spare bed in the room Kyle has been using and not interrupt them.

“You can sleep with us, papa,” Colby says and when Michael focuses on him he can see him looking up at him with his bright eyes.

Colby grins at him when Michael lets out a breath and slides into the bed with them. He presses a kiss to the top of Colby’s head, rubs a hand over Alex’s arm. Alex’s lips twitch as he sighs, but he doesn’t wake or pull away so Michael lets his hand rest there, a warm weight so Alex knows he’s there.

“Dad’s really sad,” Colby says, “he doesn’t like talking about what happened to him at the places they kept us.”

“Places?” Michael asks quietly, he’d kind of thought that there was only the one place that Jesse had locked Alex up in, he should have probably realized that the man would have kept moving him so there was less chance of someone finding him. “There was more than one?”

“I only remember six, but there was one place we stayed twice, dad said there was more before I was old enough to remember them,” Colby says. “They shaved our heads a couple months ago and dad was really worried they were going to move us again when we’d only just found Uncle Flint and dad said he was going to help us.”

“He threw a temper tantrum,” Alex murmurs, his eyes are still closed when Michael looks over at him. “And he stopped leaving at night because I think he was afraid they would just move us when he wasn’t on site. I was actually surprised our dad didn’t show up and frog march him out and move us himself.”

“That was probably around the time we were asking questions and just generally being a nuisance, he was probably too busy dealing with us and trying to recruit Kyle, couldn’t multi task well enough to add on your brothers and moving you probably.”

“Maybe,” Alex says softly. “But I’m sure he had a plan for any eventuality.”

********************************

The windows in the room have heavy, dark curtains that keep the majority of the sunlight out, Alex isn’t sure what woke him so he lays there with his eyes closed. He can’t feel Colby or Michael near him, though the bed keeps shifting.

“I should stay with dad,” Colby is saying, he’s got his stubborn voice going.

“We’ll just go get something to eat and come right back,” Michael says softly, “that way your dad can sleep a bit more.”

He can _feel_ Colby wavering, if they’re both awake it means it’s likely later then Alex normally allows himself and Colby to sleep.

“Come on, I’ll give you a piggy back ride to the kitchen,” Michael starts.

“I don’t know what that is,” Colby says, his voice is shaking and Alex opens his eyes and can see Michael turning around.

“Wrap your arms around my neck, okay? Not too tight though,” Michael says and Alex watches as they manage to awkwardly get Colby up on Michael’s back.

Colby is giggling, a soft little sound that is like a balm to Alex’s soul. A reminder that they’re free, that Colby can laugh at something little and not be confined to one room, with too much light and nothing to do besides the games that Alex makes up to try and keep them from going stir crazy.

“Now say giddy up papa and we’ll see if we can convince Kyle to make us breakfast burritos,” Michael says as he walks them to the door.

“Giddy up, papa,” Colby parrots back at him, still giggling.

“I’m almost as tall as you this way papa,” Colby says seriously. “And we have to save something for dad, he didn’t eat very much for dinner last night and he went to sleep before I could say anything.”

“We’ll make your dad _anything_ he wants when he’s ready to get up, okay?” Michael says as they leave the bedroom, the door remains partially open though the light in the hallway barely breaks through the darkness of the bedroom.

He lays there and listens to the hum of the house, he thinks they’re probably the last ones awake. And he doesn’t even _want_ to be awake.

The longer he sleeps, the less amount of time he has to think about the past.

About what he hasn’t been able to protect Colby from, and the things he had to do in order to protect Colby as much as he had.

He must sleep again because he wakes up when he feels the bed shift as Colby climbs down from Michael’s back.

“I’m awake,” he murmurs and Colby lays next to him.

“We saved you breakfast, dad,” Colby says and Alex reaches up to run a hand over his head, Michael has disappeared into the bathroom and he can hear the water running.

Colby lays his hand on his shoulder and Alex doesn’t need to look to see his hand glowing faintly.

“I’m not hurt baby,” he says softly, shaking his head. “I’m just tired, and talking about things made me…” _sad, angry, humiliated_

He pushes himself up so he’s sitting against the headboard, Colby settling cross-legged next to him. He’s not sure how long they sit there in silence just breathing together before Michael comes out of the bathroom in jeans and a t-shirt that clings to his chest in a way that has Alex blinking and thanking some unknown deity that the room is still mostly dark enough that it hides the fact he’s blushing.

He’s an adult, with a child, that he had with _this_ man, there is absolutely no reason that looking at Michael should make him blush.

His feet are bare and he’s rubbing a towel over his head.

“I told them all we were going to have a nice quiet day,” Michael says.

“Are you going to stay with us?” Alex asks quietly, Michael sits on the edge of the bed and looks at him.

“Is that okay? I can go bug Kyle or your brother, but,” Michael’s eyes flicker between him and Colby.

“We can play the game dad and I used to play,” Colby says, “Uncle Ryder got me a bunch of stones from outside and we can…” he trails off looking uncertainly at Alex, biting at his lower lip.

What Colby can do, what Alex can do now, those things didn’t start with him. And he knows what the doctors thought, he also knows that he never once had contact with anyone else held with them besides Colby and the soldiers that his father deemed faithful enough to his cause.

The only common variable between Colby and Alex is Michael.

********************************

He knows that Kyle is in the living room, probably mentally composing e-mails to Max telling him your brother is an idiot.

But the alien thing is not something that is brought up in random conversation, not ever.

Unless you are Max and Liz, then somehow it comes up in a random conversation following a drive by shooting where Liz dies, or almost dies.

Michael is sure that Max could have used the radio on his hip and called 911 and administered CPR and there would still be only three people in Roswell that knew about aliens.

They’ve turned the lights in the bedroom on but left the curtains drawn, he thinks they’re still in New Mexico which means that midday sunlight would be heating the room up regardless of how high Oliver and David have convinced Ryder to let them turn the AC up to.

Colby is sitting between Alex’s legs and they’re playing two against one which Michael doesn’t think is strictly fair, but Alex has color back in his cheeks and there’s a spark in his eyes that hadn’t been there when he’d gone to sleep or even when he’d first woke up.

“I think this game is rigged,” Michael says when the duo wins again. It’s some bastardized form of tic-tac-toe and connect four.

Colby giggles and leans forward to reset the rocks, shoving a handful in Michael’s direction before moving his pile over to their side.

Michael thinks for a minute before he sits the first stone down, watches as Alex whispers in Colby’s ear and Colby nods before leaning forward and placing his own rock next to Michael’s.

“Can I show you a trick?” Michael asks quietly, he doesn’t look at either of them, he feels like there’s a lump in his throat and he really wishes Max or Isobel were here with him for support.

“What kind of trick?” Colby asks, Michael glances up and they’re both watching him, heads close together.

He doesn’t look away when he does it, it took a long time to get enough control to be able to do something simple like move a stone over another stone. It used to be so easy when he was a kid, as he got older it got harder and harder especially the longer he tried to hide it.

Alex’s lips twitch upward, like he’s forcing himself to _not_ smile. Michael could really _use_ that smile aimed in his direction. He nudges Colby and Colby doesn’t have the same restraint, he beams at him and doesn’t even move his fingers before he shifts Michael’s stone back into its original position.

“Dad,” Colby turns to stare up at Alex and Alex doesn’t rolls his eyes, just casts his eyes at the pile of stones that are in front of Colby and one shifts out of the pile to the other side of the one that Colby had originally placed.

Michael watches them, watches Colby relax into Alex, watches Alex wrap his arms around their kid and look at him. Offering him just the tiniest hint of a smile, his eyes are light and there’s no condemnation in them.

There’s no fear and Michael smiles back, nothing tiny about his, he’s sure they could probably see it from whatever planet they’re originally from.

********************************

“You know I can’t actually perform the test here, right?” Kyle says when Ryder asks him to take the blood samples.

Michael and Colby have disappeared back into the room being shared with Alex, he can hear the quiet sound of Colby giggling and the low hum of Michael and Alex talking. He’s trying very hard to not eavesdrop.

“Patrick’s going to run it over to the hospital,” Ryder says absently, it’s only one vial. Such a tiny amount of blood that could completely upend his entire life.

If he’s positive for the gene, he’s not sure if they’ve just been completely lucky or if his dad has somehow figured out a way to dose him with the ‘trial-not-released-to-the-public-birth-control pill’ that’s been in the news for last couple of years.

He already knows what David thinks, he doesn’t trust Jesse Manes at all, has _never_ trusted him for reasons that David has never been able to fully articulate to him.

“I’m surprised you didn’t have the test done when you enlisted,” Kyle comments as he labels the vial with the sticker that David had already pulled for him and hands it off to Patrick.

The vial doesn’t have his name on it, they’re not taking any chances, not with Jesse still being out there somewhere.

“I did, it was negative for the gene,” Ryder says. “But David says that our dad told Alex that all of us were positive so...”

“It could have just been a false negative, there were a lot of those back when they first launched the tests,” Kyle says sensibly, though his face is doing something weird. “You really think your dads reach goes that far? I mean it’s not like he’s an officer or anything, he’s just enlisted, right?”

“I wouldn’t have thought my dad had enough power that he could keep Alex locked down in a prison cell for over ten years, let alone move him to multiple different facilities, staffed by US military, but he did, does…” he amends.

Because he’s hopeful that whatever power his father _might_ have wielded is pretty much exhausted, but he knows that the fact that his dad is still out there somewhere and they’re still in a safe house speaks volumes.

“I think we can all agree that this goes a lot higher then just your dad,” David says quietly. He’s shared just the barest of details of what Alex disclosed to him with Ryder, the tamest detail he could think to impart was the fact his father had okayed the use of his brother as fucking bait during training exercises.

_Multiple_ training exercises which probably is what resulted in the injuries that his nephew was continually healing him of.

He doesn’t want to think about David _isn’t_ telling him, what is sure to come out if this goes to trial or a military tribunal.

“Why would your dad even lie about a positive gene test?” Kyle asks.

“Who knows,” Ryder sighs. “I’m sure he justified it in his head as protecting the purity of the Manes name or some bullshit.”

He’s sure there’s a lot more to it than that, but honestly Ryder is tired and it’s the best his ‘only had three hours of sleep’ brain can come up with.

“So we’re not telling my parents obviously,” David says sitting down next to him, he folds their hands together and Kyle raises an eyebrow before he makes a motion with his head that Ryder thinks that means he’s going to vacate the room. Ryder nods and he does, so he’s not completely missing signals.

“Are they anti… you know?” Ryder asks, he winces. He likes David’s parents, he’d really like to have at least one set left by the time this is all over.

“You’ve met my parents, you really think they’re anti anything?” David snorts, he brushes his lips against the back of Ryder’s hand. “We’re already getting the ‘so when are you making an honest man out of him’ questions, do you really want to start adding in ‘when can we expect grandbabies to start coming’ questions too?”

Ryder huffs a sigh, but he definitely sees his point.

********************************


	10. Chapter 10

**Missing 10/?**  


“Is it okay for me to hang out with you or is this, you know, _private_ family time or something?” Kyle asks, leaning into the room.

“You can come in,” Michael says, after he looks at Alex and Alex nods in agreement, “maybe you can help me even the odds, these two are trouncing me.”

“To be fair we’ve been playing this game or some form of it for a long time,” Alex says. They’d used torn up pieces of toilet paper as pieces for long enough that playing with something that doesn’t blow away if one of them breathes too hard feels odd.

“We need to talk about a game plan for what’s going to happen when we get out of here, because you know that’s going to happen at some point,” Kyle says, he’s looking pointedly at Michael, so this sounds like a continuation of an argument that they’ve maybe already had.

Michael isn’t looking back at him, instead he’s leaning forwarded staring intently at the stones that have already been placed down.

“If Isobel doesn’t have a list of apartments and or houses already made up and isn’t actively searching for the best ones of the bunch, I’ll eat my cowboy hat,” he says absently. “You don’t even want to know how long she’s been trying to get me to buy something, she’s probably already got the Airstream listed for sale.”

“I’m actually surprised you’ve held out this long,” Kyle says and Michael shrugs, still studying the stones.

“The trick is to not make eye contact,” Michael does a little finger wave thing and his stone shifts to the left two positions. Kyle doesn’t make a sound or a motion at the fact that stone moved without anyone touching it, so the alien thing is not unknown to him.

In front of him Colby is trembling in his excitement so Alex murmurs a soft, “go ahead,” and Colby settles their stone to effectively block him.

Michael mutters something under his breath and Kyle laughs at him.

“Isobel is a planner,” Michael says, like Alex didn’t go to high school with her just like he did.

“I have actually met her,” Alex reminds him.

“So you need a game plan, unless you’re okay with her choosing where you’re going to be living for the foreseeable future,” Kyle presses on.

“I figure we’re probably going to stay with Max for a bit,” Michael says, he looks over at Alex and there’s something soft and tentative in his eyes. “While we figure out what we’re going to do, I mean Alex and Colby might want to have their own place…”

Michael won’t look at him, staring down at the stones sitting unmoving on the floor instead. Colby leans back into him, like he can _feel_ the fact that the tension in the room has ratcheted up a billion levels.

“Colby and I,” he says softly, “I think we’ve had our own space for a long time.”

Too long he thinks, too much _time_ where it’s just been the two of them. He thinks he’d like a space that is his and Colby’s and Michael’s.

He’d like a place that he can consider a home instead of a prison, where he can put color on the wall and have more then one room and doors that _he_ shuts behind him and not doors that are always locked.

He doesn’t think that any place that Michael is living with them could be considered a prison.

Michael is staring at him, and there’s such _hope_ in his eyes that Alex smiles at him, can’t help himself really and he thinks it might just be the smallest amount of progress that he doesn’t hide his face in Colby’s hair so no one can see it.

********************************

“So we need to figure out the paperwork for a birth certificate,” David says that night at dinner, Colby is in his own chair though he’s sandwiched between Alex and Michael, leaning into Alex’s side.

Ryder’s been figuring this was coming, and he knows there’s not a whiff of Colby anywhere otherwise Oliver would have found out about him a lot earlier then Flint sending them the pictures.

“They didn’t really allow me access to calendars, so I don’t know the exact date, there’s probably something in the medical files,” Alex says after a pause, where he puts down his fork and wraps his arms around himself and Ryder wishes death upon his dad once more.

Colby is glaring at them where he’s trying to press even closer to his dad, Michael has settled his arm over the back of Colby’s chair and is resting his hand on the back of Alex’s shoulder.

“He was a month early or so,” Alex says.

“How do you know?” Kyle asks and Alex’s mouth twists.

“Because they’re weren’t ready for me to go into labor, nobody that was supposed to be there was,” Alex looks over at Colby, wraps an arm over his shoulder and tugs him close. “It’s why I got to keep him, because by the time they all got there he was already there and breathing and screaming and I would have promised anything to anybody to keep him.”

********************************

Contrary to popular belief (namely Maria’s) Isobel _does_ visit Rosa. She doesn’t do it regularly, she isn’t there every weekend or every other day, sometimes she waits for Liz to raise an eyebrow at her and she’ll roll her eyes and go.

It hurts, something in her soul _aches_ seeing Rosa laying in that bed. Seeing nothing, doing nothing, barely able to function without someone guiding her motions and way.

The free-spirited girl that she remembers would absolutely loathe it.

When she gets there late on a random Sunday no one even blinks at her, it’s past normal visiting hours, she _definitely_ shouldn’t be there. But she breezes by the front desk and no one stops her and when she’s in Rosa’s room she sets her pads of paper with all her lists and laptop on the small table in the corner and goes to sit on the corner of Rosa’s bed.

She’s already tucked into bed for sleep, though her unseeing eyes are still open.

Max and Michael would flip out, because they _still_, after all these years, don’t have the first idea what caused her blackouts when they were teenagers.

They all know they were linked to her power, if they had their way, she’d have her mind locked down 24/7 for the rest of time.

But Rosa is locked up in her mind somehow and if there’s a way for Isobel to get her out, guide her back to the land of the living she’ll take every chance she has to.

So she’s been in Rosa’s mind, not every visit, not even every other visit, when the doctors make hopeful noises that things in their tests are changing she’ll go in, try to coax her back out.

Back to her.

This is _her_ Rosa, this is the girl that she was willing to leave Roswell and Max and Michael behind for.

But it’s like Rosa has hidden herself away in some small dark corner and no matter how hard she tries Isobel can’t shine a light bright enough for her to follow.

Isobel curls into her side, lays her cheek against the top of Rosa’s head and her arm over her chest and she just breathes.

“Maria’s probably told you, or maybe Liz did… but we found Alex finally,” Isobel says softly. “Michael’s got a son, he’s the most adorable thing you’ll ever lay your eyes on. You need to come back so you can help me spoil him completely rotten. We’re going to be the cool aunts, I don’t care that Maria and Liz thinks that’s going to be them.”

She closes her eyes.

They need to find Jesse Manes so they can bring them home. So Michael can have his family all in one place like they should have always been.

********************************

“What are you doing out here?” Ryder asks, when he finds Alex in the living room curled up on the couch long after everyone has gone to bed.

“What are _you_ doing out here?” Alex retorts and he raises an eyebrow and looks so much like his take no shit little brother that Ryder wants to fling himself at him and hug him tight. There’s a 50/50 chance that Alex would run away from him if he gave into that urge.

“Thirsty, needed some water,” Ryder says, he sits on the opposite end of the couch, feet drawn up under him. He can see Alex’s mind working, and the way his jaw tenses just signals that he was dying to say something and then thought better of it and is biting his tongue to keep from voicing it.

“You were totally going to say something about sex and then remembered that you’re currently sharing a bed with Michael,” Ryder grins.

“To be fair our kid sleeps right between us,” Alex says wryly, just a hint of flushing on his cheek that tells Ryder that he was right.

“He’s a good kid,” Ryder says softly, “You’ve done a good job with him.”

Alex rubs a hand over his jaw, “I should have been able to get us out.”

“How?” Ryder asks simply. Because Alex went into that cell when he was seventeen, and Ryder has seen the schematics for the last prison he was held at and he’s sure that none of the other places they kept him were any different.

The floors with weight sensors, the heavy doors with explosives wired into contact points in the glass, the ventilation shafts that had laser sensors and motion alarms.

The little toilet and sink that were hidden in the back corner had timers and only allowed for certain amounts of waste to be disposed of.

They’d done everything in their power to make sure there wasn’t a feasible way for them to even think about or plan an escape.

“I made a deal with dad,” Alex whispers. “After they let me hold him and I knew that there wasn’t any way in _hell_ that I could give him up. He let me keep Colby, didn’t try and take him from me, gave me what I needed to take care of him and I did whatever he wanted.”

Ryder swallows thickly, his eyes prickle and he tries to regulate his breathing into something that won’t have him having a full blown panic attack in front of his brother who has more reasons to be traumatized then anyone that Ryder has ever met but seems to be holding it together by the skin of his teeth.

“I never said no to anything they suggested,” Alex says. “I just… I _needed_ to keep Colby with me, I did whatever they wanted, I couldn’t take the chance that…”

“You couldn’t have said no,” Ryder says, “If you’d tried, they would have just ignored you and done whatever they wanted regardless. You did what you had to in order to survive,” Ryder says. “In order for you and Colby to both survive.”

“Most of it was bad, but the worst part were these training exercises,” Alex doesn’t look at him, Ryder doesn’t think he’s even focusing on him anymore. “Every three months like clockwork, from the time Colby was two until he was six or so they’d bring in a new round of guards,” he takes a deep breath, links his fingers together and squeezes tightly. “And I would get marched out and told to try and escape… and they’d stop me... by whatever means necessary, using whatever force the situation dictated.”

Alex stares at him, eyes wet and shining, his lips are quivering, and Ryder thinks if he looked away that Alex would actually let those tears in his eyes fall.

“I know Flint told you about…”

“That’s not going into any official report, not ever,” Ryder says. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Colby didn’t understand,” Alex says softly, “when they’d drag me back into our cell because I could barely walk, half the time I didn’t even remember getting there so I’m sure they just dragged me in and dumped me on the floor. And he… he was just a _baby_, he just wanted to help his dad not hurt, he didn’t know what helping me would do… _I_ didn’t know what it would do.”

“Why did they stop the exercises?” Ryder asks, he’s sure it wasn’t because Jesse Manes remembered that Alex was his actual fucking son.

“I actually escaped,” Alex says softly, “It was the first time I was able to use the thing we’re not going to talk about and I was outside the compound and there wasn’t anyone around and I could… I could have just run,” his voice breaks and his face just crumples. “But I couldn’t leave Colby, so I just sat down and waited for them to find me.”

“Alex…”

“I don’t have any scars, so there’s no evidence of any of it, just what I remember and what they allowed to be recorded. But after that there were no more exercises, but that was also when they changed the doors, ours had never been wired before and they sealed all the cells so we weren’t allowed to talk to each other anymore, I think that was almost worse.”

“I missed talking to Miss Mara,” Colby’s voice breaks through the darkness and Ryder twists and can see Colby standing there with Michael right behind him, hands on his shoulder. Michael looks stricken. “And Mr. Tanner.”

“Others that were kept with us,” Alex says, probably for their benefit and he sits up so Colby can curl up beside him, he wraps an arm around his shoulders and presses a kiss to the top of his head. “They got moved when we were originally supposed to.”

Michael kneels in front of them, laying a hand on Colby’s leg but not touching Alex. He waits for Alex to reach out and when he finally does he holds his hand between both of his, he’s murmuring something over and over, so softly that Ryder can’t hear it.

“It’s not your fault,” Alex says quietly. “And it’s over and done with now, and after all that they mostly ignored us until it was time to move us. That was nice, quiet,” Alex shrugs, like it doesn’t mean anything.

It does.

“We should have found you sooner,” Ryder says, “we should have…”

“You didn’t even know you should be looking for me,” Alex says. “If you want to blame someone, blame dad, and whoever he actually works for. _Find him_ so we can go home.”

********************************


	11. Chapter 11

**Missing 11/?**  


“January 12,” David says the next morning, Ryder is yawning into his cup of coffee and Michael feels him, he’s already on his second cup. He’d just laid there, wide awake, after Colby convinced Alex to lay back down with them.

He hopes that therapists of some sort are on the lists that he knows Isobel is making. One for Alex and one for Michael, because the guilt of not being able to rescue Alex sooner feels like it could choke him.

“What?” Alex is the only one of them that seems in any way alert, even Colby is cuddled up against Alex’s side with his eyes shut.

“January 12th, 6 pounds, 2 ounces, 17 inches. I had Oliver run a search and he was able to pull out the information,” Michael can see David glance at the mostly empty coffee pot, look over at the table and them, then busies himself with making another pot.

It dawns on him then what David has said, he blames the lack of sleep added to the lack of caffeine for the slowness.

“January 12th,” he breathes, and he looks at Colby, at where Alex has got his arm looped around him holding him close.

He’s got a birthday coming up, but before that is Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas.

He’s hopeful but trying not to be _too_ hopeful that they’ll be back at Max’s by Halloween, maybe even in their own place. That he can explain what it means and take him out trick or treating the way he doesn’t remember doing as a kid.

They won’t be able to do that if they’re still cooped up in this safehouse then.

“I’ve already got them working on a birth certificate for him, get things all legal on our end,” David continues.

“Dad’s going to know if…” Alex says softly, he cups a hand around Colby’s head and Colby blinks up at him before closing his eyes again.

“We won’t file anything until he’s in custody, it’s going to take a few days at least for legal to get all the paperwork ready to go and you and Michael will have to sign it anyway.”

“Bureaucracy fucking sucks,” Ryder mutters into his cup and Michael grins as David ghosts a hand over his head and sits down in the empty chair next to him.

********************************

Alex leaves Colby to splash around in the bathtub and wanders back into the bedroom to lay out something for him to change into.

Colby is absolutely entranced by the tub and by the bubblebath that had mysteriously appeared on the edge of it one morning. Alex is a fan of whoever stocked them with good soap and shampoo and soft towels and washcloths.

They’d only ever had stinging showers with lukewarm water and crappy soap that made his skin itch and towels that could moonlight as sandpaper to dry off with.

Michael is sitting on the edge of the bed and he looks lost in thought, though he does look up when Alex walks in.

“You okay?” Alex asks as he rummages through the drawer in the dresser that he’d put the things that had been supplied for them when they got here. There’d been new packages of underwear and socks and a stack of t-shirts and jeans and sweatpants.

He mentally makes a note to ask Ryder about laundry and how it’s getting done, Colby is almost out of underwear as is he and there’s no point in having a new package just randomly appear when they can just do laundry like the adults they actually are.

“I want to hold you,” Michael says when he turns back around, “but I’m kind of afraid if I try to touch you without your express permission that you might knee me in the balls or something, so…” he takes a deep breath, “can I hold you?”

Alex thinks the world hears his swallow and he drags his lip between his teeth, clutches the clothes he’d picked out for Colby against his chest. He blindly sets the bundle on top of the dresser without looking away from Michael’s gaze.

He takes a step forward, lets his arms drop to his side and tries to not look terrified, this is _Michael_, this is Colby’s papa who Alex has spent the entirety of his childhood telling him every story he could remember about him.

This is Michael who Alex has spent ten years desperately missing and longing for.

“Okay…” he says softly, Michael stands slowly and takes three tentative, halting steps forward, lifts his arms and waits for Alex to shuffle forward before he loosely wraps his arms around him. Alex shifts forward more and wraps his own arms tight around Michael’s chest.

He lets out a long shuddering breath and presses his forehead against Michael’s neck, feels Michael press a hand against the back of his neck, stroke through his hair. Michael’s lips graze his cheek so lightly that Alex would think he imagined it but he can _feel_ the exhale of air against his skin.

He closes his eyes, inches just the tiniest bit closer and lets Michael hold him safe and tight against him.

“Dad, I think I’m done,” he hears, and he can feel Michael laughing silently against him, when he draws away Michael lets him go, though he stops him before he can move away so he can cradle his face in his hands.

Michael brushes his thumbs over his cheekbones and Alex just gazes at him. At the way Michael looks right back, eyes open and clear, the curve of a smile on his lips and he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to tell Michael how hard he fights with himself before he leans forward and presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

How _desperately_ he wishes he had the nerve to press their lips together.

How deep down he fears that if he _does_ that, his father will burst through the door and he won’t have a hammer this time he’ll have a gun and Alex will end up with more than just Michael’s blood on his hands.

********************************

The house is quiet around them, David settles in the chair next to him with barely a sound.

“All quiet,” he murmurs and Ryder nods, focuses his attention back on the laptop in front of him. Bennigan has sent him the bullet points of Alex’s statement. There are no expanding details on anything, he probably has David to thank for that; but Ryder’s overactive imagination can fill in all the blanks.

“What do you think would have happened if Alex had managed to carry Colby until his due date?” he asks, he’s sure he knows, but he needs someone to say the words.

That if Alex had carried Colby nine months and Jesse Manes and his hand selected group of doctors had been on the site when he went into labor Colby would have likely been killed the second he drew a breath, that Alex wouldn’t have even had the opportunity to hold his son let alone the time to come up with and make a deal with Jesse in order to ensure Colby’s continued survival.

Alex would have been given barely enough time to recover and then shuttled off to a military boot camp of their fathers choosing.

If he even survived himself. Ryder would like to give his father the benefit of the doubt, but he thinks they’re long past that. Deep down he _knows_ that if Alex had carried Colby to term, Colby would be dead, and Alex would likely have been dead not long after him.

David doesn’t need to say the words, the look in his eyes screams it all.

“My father’s a monster,” Ryder breathes. David links their fingers together, squeezes them tightly, forces him to look at him.

“I keep trying to think, if I’d come out back then, would he have done that to me?” he asks.

“You got the results back,” David says and Ryder shrugs.

“I haven’t looked at them, kind of scared to,” he admits and David tugs until Ryder shifts his chair over and can lay his head on his shoulder.

“Why?” David asks and Ryder doesn’t know what he expects him to say.

“We’ve never talked about kids,” he mutters, he’s kind of hoping David won’t hear him. But he’s _right_ there, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with his hearing.

“I wouldn’t mind some,” David says softly, his hand is stroking along the back of his neck lightly. “At some indeterminate point in the future.”

Ryder twists to look at him, David’s hand is soft against his skin.

“And this isn’t something we even need to talk about now, it can be tabled until after we have your dad in custody, after we have Alex and Colby settled.”

“I love you,” Ryder says and David smiles at him, breathes “I love you, too,” against his lips before he settles back in his chair.

“All your medications come from the VA right?” David asks and his tone is light but Ryder has known him long enough that he _knows_ that tone.

He’s thinking what Ryder has been thinking since he found out that there’s a better then likely chance that he’s got the gene.

That if he’s positive for the gene then the only reason they haven’t had an unplanned pregnancy and the sudden realization of a false negative on the gene long before now is because he’s had pharmaceutical help in making sure that never happened.

********************************

She has four houses that had met her original requirements; one she’s already mentally marked off her list after reviewing the pictures of it available on line.

It’s too small, both the house and the yard, _way_ too small. She wants Alex and Colby and Michael to have all the space to roam in. Plus, it only had two bedrooms, and she’s not psychic the way that Maria claims to be but she’d be willing to put her own hard earned money down on Alex and Michael having at least one more child.

She drags Maria with her to look at them with her; she would have dragged Liz along as well, but she seems to be spending all her time working with her dad so it’s just the two of them.

“Too small,” Maria says barely two seconds after the realtor has stepped out of view to let them wander the house on their own.

“Aesthetically it’s pleasant,” Isobel says.

“It only has two bedrooms, I think we all know that Colby isn’t going to be their only kid,” Maria says. “It has good light though.”

The second house is better, four bedrooms, two bathrooms but the spooked expression on Maria’s face says it all.

She doesn’t even have to say a word before Isobel is saying no and moving them onto the third.

It was in a nice neighborhood, but the air in the house just feels stale… and… horror doesn’t have a scent but something horrible happened within the walls of that house. She doesn’t want to know but she underlines the address and writes _Max?_ next to it because she’s nosy like that and the realtor should really have disclosed any of that information.

The third house… is perfect.

The whole house is illuminated with light, the absolute moment the realtor opens the door and ushers them in she knows, down to the bottom of her soul she knows, _this_ is Alex and Michael’s home.

“This is it,” she murmurs and next to her Maria has her hands clasped together over her heart and she’s smiling.

Her phone rings as she pulls it out of her purse and it’s Max, like maybe he knew.

“We found it,” she says by way of greeting, “how mad do you think Michael will be if I just bought it for them?”

“I think he’s got other things he’s going to be focused on, and he might find it a relief to not have to worry about where they’re going to live,” Max says slowly. “They finally took Jesse Manes into custody.”

********************************

“You’re sure?” Ryder asks for like the tenth time in as many minutes. His dad is a wily old fuck, “did they do DNA testing to make sure he’s not like a mutant shapeshifter or something?”

Aliens are real, he would not be surprised at all to find out that every single science fiction movie he’s ever watched or had the misfortune of watching had some element of truth.

David lets a loud breath, rolls his eyes and doesn’t answer. He just stares at him, Ryder looks over at where Alex is frozen like a statue on the couch, he looks just about as disbelieving as Ryder feels.

“Really?” Alex breathes and the smile that David offers him is gentle.

“Really.”

********************************


	12. Chapter 12

**Missing 12/?**  


Michael is actually sort of scared to look at his missed messages and calls so when Oliver hands him and Kyle their phones with cords and plugs for charging he plugs in his deader than dead phone and leaves it.

“But what does it mean?” Colby is asking when he gets back into the living room, Alex has got him cuddled up close to him on the couch.

“It means we get to go home,” Alex says softly and his eyes flick to Michael but dart away before Michael can offer him a smile in return.

“I know _that_,” Colby presses insistently, “but do we have a home? I don’t want to go back to the other place,” his voice is shaking, and Alex presses a kiss to his cheek, holding him tightly to him.

“We’re never going back there again,” Alex promises, he looks over at Michael and there’s such pain and fear in his eyes.

Michael knows better than to touch him, but he still reaches out a hand and squeezes his arm in reassurance.

Jesse Manes is in custody, Michael doesn’t need to know more then that. Jesse is in custody, and Alex and Colby are free even if neither one of them really seems to know what that means for them yet.

“We’re going to stay with Max,” Michael says, he’s confident that is what Isobel has planned and Max has readily agreed to. He’s sure in the mess of incoming text messages and voice mails that he’s being told that is their plan. “Uncle Max,” he amends, “he’s my brother.”

“Like Uncle Ryder and Uncle Flint are dads,” Colby nods, “what if he doesn’t like me?”

Michael blinks at him, because that is so unlikely that he’s not even sure how to respond to the question. They’ve known about Colby for literal weeks and he’s sure that Max and Isobel (and Maria and Liz and Kyle) would join him in scorching the earth if anyone tried to harm Colby, or Alex any further.

He’s their only nephew right now, and they love him because he’s blood, because he’s Michael’s and he’s Alex’s. Once they _actually_ meet him…

Well he’s pretty sure that Colby is going to want for nothing and Michael in terms of importance to his siblings is going to slide under Colby’s wants and needs and he’s probably going to end up behind Alex as well.

He’s surprisingly okay with that.

He touches Colby’s hair, brushes his fingers through the curls and smiles. “They already love you and they haven’t even met you yet,” he says softly.

********************************

“You’re not telling me something,” Ryder says as he follows David into their room, he shuts the door behind him because if whatever it is, is that bad, then he doesn’t want anyone else to hear it.

Like Alex, or Colby, or even Michael or Kyle.

“What would I not be telling you,” David says sensibly, he’s pulling his bag out of the closet, setting it on the bed and then grabbing Ryder’s while he’s there and putting it right next to his. “Your dad is in custody, you should be happy.”

“I am happy,” Ryder says, “but you’ve also got your ‘I’m not talking about it' jawline going, so I know there’s something you’re not telling me.”

David just sighs at him.

“Flint’s going to be here in a couple of hours,” he says, “and the two of you plus Oliver are going to take Alex, Colby, Michael and Kyle back to Roswell. Hunter is going to meet you there in a couple of days, probably your mother as well since Flint didn’t have a lot of the same communication restrictions that we had so she’s _well aware_ that we’ve found Alex and _where_ we found him and how he came to be there.”

His mom is going to _absolutely_ murder his dad, he’s kind of okay with that, but he also thinks there’s a long line forming of people who actually want to see Jesse Manes dead and there’s probably going to end up being a fight over who actually gets to do it.

“And what are you and Patrick going to be doing while I’m trying to convince my mom that manslaughter is not the answer for every issue?”

“I’m going to be dealing with the shitstorm your dad being taken into custody kicked up,” David states, he stares at him, not blinking or looking away.

“You said he was in custody, why are you…” Ryder says faintly.

“He _is_ in custody,” David steps forward, voice insistent though gentle, “the issue more stems from _where_ he was taken into custody.”

He doesn’t really want to know, he thinks he would stay saner _not_ knowing.

“Where?” he manages to get out.

“About a half mile from here,” David say, he presses his hand to the back of Ryder’s head, tugs him into a hug that has Ryder clutching at him in return.

“We’ve had details placed strategically in a few different locations, one of them took him down before he got any closer than that. Right now he’s handcuffed to a hospital bed with three gunshot wounds, two guards at all time, plus more stationed through the hospital. No one is going to let him slip through their fingers.”

“What was he even planning on doing if he got here, how did he even know where here _was_?” Ryder asks into David’s shoulder and David shakes his head.

“I don’t think you really want me to answer those questions. But that’s what I’m going to find out. You’re going to go with your brother and nephew and you’re going to stay with them until this entire mess is sorted out.”

********************************

Patrick has handed over a duffel bag for Alex to pack his and Colby’s meager belongings in. He’s trying not to think about all the things he’s going to need for Colby and where the money is going to come from because that’s a panic attack that he can’t afford to have waiting to happen.

Behind him he can hear Colby giggling and the low rumble of Michael’s voice as he keeps their son occupied while Alex takes way longer then he really needs to in to pack up three drawers worth of clothing.

“That’s us papa,” Colby says and when Alex turns to see what they’re doing he sees that Michael has stacked all the pillows on top of each other and that Colby has moved to curl up under one of Michael’s arms where he’s poking at his phone. “You need one with dad too,” he says seriously gesturing Alex over with one flailing arm that just manages to _not_ hit Michael in the face.

Michael grins at him and Alex rolls his eyes but dutifully walks over and climbs up the bed, when he settles next to Michael, there’s still plenty of distance between them, nothing to see here.

When he looks at the phone screen all he can see are pictures of Michael and Colby, they’ve been taking selfies with Michael’s phone it seems, heads bent together and brilliant smiles on both their faces.

“Smile Alex,” Michael murmurs in his ear and he shivers; he’s not sure if he manages a smile, but Michael takes the picture anyway and when he looks at it there’s a curve to his lips and Michael isn’t even looking at the camera in the picture, he’s looking at _him_ with a gentle expression.

“Want to see a bunch of people claiming to be adults lose their collective minds in a matter of seconds?” he says softly and Alex hums in response but curls a little closer into the curve of Michael’s side. He’s not touching him, but he could reach out a hand and lay it on Michael’s chest and there’s a part of him that really wants to.

But there’s a part of him that knows the door to their room is wide open, anyone could walk in at any possible second and he _knows_ that no one in this house would blink an eye at Alex curling up in bed with Michael and Colby, the only person that would care is currently locked up if David is to be believed.

Alex really wants to believe him.

But he still doesn’t reach out, he thinks it’s enough right now that he knows that he _could_ and that he _wants_ to.

He hopes that soon he’ll be able to do it without second guessing himself.

For now he watches the screen with interest as Michael hits buttons to open up a text string that looks to be a group text by the number of bubbles at the top. He adds the picture and a smiley face with heart eyes and sends it off.

“Wait for it,” Michael says and he tugs Colby just the tiniest bit closer and Alex takes the chance and presses his cheek against Michael’s shoulder.

“Goddammit Michael,” Kyle yells from one room over, there’s hurried steps and Kyle is suddenly standing at the end of their bed. “Are you trying to _break_ the group chat?”

_OMG <3 <3 <3_ from Maria, and almost identical messages from Isobel and Liz follow within mere seconds.

Then the phone vibrates in his Michael’s hand, a picture of Max mid eye roll popping up on the screen.

“Maxwell,” Michael says and there’s such fond humor in his voice.

“When are you guys coming home?” Max asks, voice impatient, Alex can hear the chatter of other voices on the other end.

“Probably start heading back later tonight maybe, or in the morning, they haven’t given us a real definitive time line yet,” Michael drawls, he hits a button on his phone and puts Max on speaker.

“I just want to let you know that Isobel is buying you a house, mom and dad are helping her and you should probably just let them, also the Sheriff knows so Kyle will probably want to talk to his mom sooner rather then waiting until you all blow into town.”

Kyle winces. “Is she really mad?” he asks and he looks down at the phone in his hand like his mom might spring from it like a genie. She’d been terrifying when they were kids, Alex is still pretty sure that even with what he knows exists in the world now that she’s not.

“You were saved by the fact that she’s the Sheriff, so they had to read her in just the tiniest bit about what was going on, she knows about Alex and Colby, she knows you’re with them instead of at a work conference like Liz tried to convince her of.”

“Also, I can buy my own damn house,” Michael says, though he doesn’t sound like he’s seriously upset about it. Alex presses his hand against Michael’s side and Michael lays the cellphone down on his stomach and slides the arm not keeping Colby close loosely around Alex’s shoulders.

“I’ll let you choose your own furniture, though we already ordered bedroom sets, do you or Alex have any color preferences for the living room set or sheets or anything?” Isobel asks and Max is muttering in the background, so it appears she just snatched the phone right out of his hand.

“You can put it on speaker, Is,” Michael says, his thumb is rubbing small circles on Alex’s shoulder. It’s soothing and the touch is gentle.

“Color preferences,” Isobel says demandingly.

“Not white,” Alex murmurs into Michael’s t-shirt. “Or pink,” he adds as an afterthought. “Simple stuff.”

“It will look elegant but classy but also be something that Colby can live and play in, you know, be a _child_ in too,” Isobel says, her voice is soft and there’s a hint of something that makes Alex think she might be near tears. “You’re going to love it, I promise.”

“But while Isobel, Maria and Liz are making sure the house is perfect you’re going to stay with _me_,” Max says, they’re on speaker now Alex thinks, there’s a sort of tinny quality to his voice when he talks. “We’ve already converted the library to a bedroom for Alex and Colby to use, and Michael already has his own room that he uses when he stays with me.”

“Alex and Colby will stay with me,” Michael says, there’s a questioning tone to his voice and Alex nods once to indicate he’s okay with that, he’ll feel better if Colby has both of them there to protect him if need be, “and probably at least one of Alex’s brothers is going to be trying to camp out there, so I guess we could always offer up the other bed to them?”

“You know I don’t mind, the more the merrier,” Max says, there’s a bright note to his voice that Alex doesn’t quite understand and when he twists his head up to look at Michael he sees him rolling his eyes so obviously he does but the way he shrugs at Alex says he’s not particularly concerned about whatever it is.

“Worst case we move your Airstream out here and someone can camp out in it if we have a need,” Max finishes.

“You mean Isobel hasn’t sold it on me yet, I would have been willing to put my own hard-earned money on her having already listed and had it sold,” Michael laughs.

“I’ve been a little busy,” Isobel grumbles.

“Couldn’t off load it, could you?”

“Some guy offered her scrap money for it, I think she’s leaving it for you to deal with when you get home,” Max offers.

“But we’ll find someplace else to store it, I’m not going to have your ruining the aesthetic of your new home with that monstrosity.”

********************************

They’re all packed up, bags in a pile by the front door and Alex isn’t sure what they’re waiting for except that if they wait much longer someone’s going to need to think about what they’re eating for dinner.

And then possibly send someone out for the food to make it as when he went to look for something for Colby to snack on the fridge was completely bare.

The loud knocking at the door startles him from where he’s been sitting on the couch with Michael and Colby, watching Colby play a game on Michael’s phone.

When Ryder comes back in he’s got Flint right on his heels and the look on Flint’s face… Alex comes to his feet and he braces himself for Flint to just grab for him.

He doesn’t, someone’s warned him and Alex is intensely grateful for that person when Flint waits for Alex to come to him, lets him hug him loosely, just patting him on the back gently. When Alex backs away and turns he can see that Michael has his phone in hand and both him and Colby are on their feet.

Colby is still shy when he steps forward, hovering right next to Alex while he looks up at Flint. Flint squats down so he’s on Colby’s level and holds out a hand, lets Colby determine what he’ll do next.

He’s not surprised that Colby hugs him, Flint is a known figure, while he’d been whisked away quickly after they’d gotten them out of the cells before that he’d sat outside their cell for six months. A constant presence in the boredom of their day to day life while they were still locked away.

Flint clutches at him, hugs him tight the way he probably wanted to hug Alex. Alex swallows and lets out a breath, wishes that he could have let his brother hug him tightly like that. Maybe someday in the near future he can.

Michael has moved up next to him, hand low on his back. When he looks down Flint is looking up at him, tears in his eyes.

“I’m so happy to meet you properly,” Flint murmurs backing away so he can cradle his face in his hands and look at him. Colby laughs when Flint lets him go, backing up to lean into Alex’s side while Alex rests a hand on the side of his head and keeps him close.

“So are we ready to go? Hit the road while it’s kind of daylight?” he says bright, standing up tall and resting his hands on his hips. “Going to warn you that mom is probably going to beat us to Roswell, if she doesn’t lose time stopping off to murder dad first.”

********************************


	13. Chapter 13

**Missing 13/?**  


“How long a drive is it back?” Kyle asks as they eye the vehicle that is supposedly the one they’re driving in, it’s got three rows of seats but it still doesn’t look nearly big enough to fit all of them.

“I call shotgun,” Ryder says hand already on the passenger side door, Oliver is sliding into the driver seat which Alex understands if only because he’s not sure that he’ll fit anywhere else in the vehicle with his shoulders.

“I’m oldest,” Flint says, like that’s meant anything since they all could talk and it became a competition in who could actually get the words out of their mouth first.

“Actually _Hunter’s_ oldest if we want to argue semantics, but he’s also not here, so…” Ryder says, even as he climbs into the front passenger seat and goes about adjusting air vents without making eye contact.

Flint ends up in the back with Kyle, once it becomes apparent that Michael isn’t sitting anywhere but right next to Alex and Colby.

“So how long is the drive back?” Alex asks again, since no one answered Kyle’s query, he waits until they pull out of the driveway and Colby is curled up under his arm playing on Michael’s cellphone again.

“Couple hours,” Oliver says, “maybe five and some change if I follow the posted speed limits…”

“Which he will, because we have a child in the car,” Ryder says earnestly, Alex can see his narrowed eyes focusing on Oliver who has all his attention focused on the road in front of them and appears to be ignoring him.

“…we’ll stop if we need to for bathrooms, but I think Patrick put some waters and soda and snack stuff in a cooler back there with the bags so we shouldn’t need to stop for food or anything.”

A couple of hours, it doesn’t seem like enough time to prepare himself for being back in Roswell again. Doesn’t seem _real_ or even _possible_ that he’s going home, it feels like a dream but he can feel Colby pressed up warm at his side and Michael’s got an arm resting on the back of the seats, just barely touching Alex’s arm.

Behind them he’s got Kyle back trying to be his best friend again and he’s got two of his three brothers on either side of him waiting for the chance to defend him. If Flint is to be believed he’ll have Hunter and his mom as well.

He’s not sure he believes it, though Colby shifts next to him and Michael starts rubbing gentle circles on his arm like he can sense Alex’s doubt.

When he chances a look over Michael is staring at him, eyes calm and lips curved into a smile and Alex breathes and tries and thinks he manages a smile back.

********************************

Isobel is fluffing the pillows on the bed, pulls the comforter that covers it taut again. There’s a stuffed bunny in the middle of the bed, head laying against the pillows and she picks it up and cradles it in her arms.

“You know they’re not going to care if the bed is a little rumpled, half the time Michael can’t even be bothered to make it,” Max says from the door and Isobel lets out a slow even breath before she turns.

“For Colby?” he asks as he comes in, they stand there together, staring at the bed that Michael has slept in on and off for five years since Max bought the house.

When his apartment got too quiet and the Airstream was too loud, when he’d had the surgeries on his hand and couldn’t do basic things without needing assistance while waiting for it to heal.

When he was alone and lonely.

She thinks the bed is going to be too small for Alex, Michael and Colby to all three fit in; to Michael’s eyes it’s likely going to be too big.

“He’s probably never had a stuffed toy,” Isobel says, she runs a hand over the bunny’s head and then sets it back in the middle of the bed. “He’s probably never had _any_ toys, or been able to play and just be a kid.”

“Well he’s here now, or will be,” Max says, he wraps an arm over her shoulders and tugs her to him, presses a kiss to her temple.

“I just want it to all be perfect,” Isobel says. “They deserve something to be perfect for them right now.”

And she means Colby and Alex _and_ Michael. They _all_ deserve the chance to be able to try and be a family.

The doorbell saves Max from having to respond to her, though she thinks he agrees with her regardless. He pulls her along with him to the front door where Liz has already answered it and invited the Sheriff in.

“Ma’am,” Max says and he sounds surprised, Isobel doesn’t know why, Kyle is coming back with them, she’d actually expected the Sheriff slightly earlier, although maybe she knew that Liz’s dad would be there with them.

“They’re not here yet?” she asks as she takes her hat off, hanging it on the hook that Max has up for the purpose of holding them.

“Michael texted about an hour ago and said they were maybe ninety minutes out,” Maria says. “They should be here soon.”

Then they all stand there awkwardly not looking at each other.

“I’m kind of surprised your parents aren’t here,” the Sheriff finally says.

“They wanted to be, but we thought too many people might be overwhelming for Alex and Colby right off, they’re going to come by tomorrow and have lunch with us,” Max says.

“Colby,” the Sheriff says faintly. “They’re both okay? They didn’t give me any information health-wise on either one of them, just that they’d been found and…” she stops, takes a deep breath and rolls her shoulders.

“Jesse fucking Manes,” she snarls, voice low and angry. “Jim always worried he’d had something to do with Alex going missing; it only got worse when Jesse refused to file any sort of missing person’s report on him, I could kick him for not following up on it. If I get my hands on him…”

“There is a line forming,” Arturo says, he’s hovering slightly behind Liz’s shoulder. “Though if Michael were to get there first I don’t think there would be anything left for the rest us to do anything with.”

“I would happily spit on his grave and stomp his ashes into the ground, how he could do that his own child, his own _grandchild_…” and for a moment the two of them are in complete agreement, though it passes quickly enough.

Isobel doesn’t think she’ll ever understand the animosity between the two of them, and back when they were teens the tension between the then Deputy Valenti and her dad had not been important enough to Rosa for her to share the details with Isobel.

“There’s drinks in the kitchen,” Max offers breaking into the uncomfortable silence. “And we put something in the crockpot just in case anyone got hungry.”

“Just a water,” the Sheriff says and they all sit in Max’s living room waiting. Conversations happening quietly with small groups, Isobel smooths her hair and checks her phone. No texts, she looks at the picture that Michael had sent in the text earlier of the three of them.

They look so happy, Alex looks more relaxed in that picture then in any of the others that Ryder has managed to get to them. Colby is just about the cutest thing in the picture.

And Michael… that’s a true smile on his face and he’s doing nothing to mask the absolute love in his eyes.

********************************

It’s just going on dusk when the cross the line into Roswell, Colby is sound asleep against Alex’s side. Michael’s got his arm resting across the back of the seat and periodically Alex will twist his head and rub his cheek against the side of his hand.

He’s got his eyes closed so Michael rubs his thumb across his temple to gain his attention and when he sleepily blinks them open and looks at him Michael smiles gently.

“We just crossed into Roswell,” he says softly and Alex blinks at him and then turns to look out the window. At the scenery that doesn’t seem to ever change no matter how many times Michael has made the trek.

Always the same signs and the same trash on the side of the road.

“Colby we’re almost there,” Alex murmurs, squeezing him a little, pressing a kiss to the top of his head as Colby yawns himself awake.

_20 minutes out. Do you have food or do we need to stop?_ he taps out to the group chat, he should send it to just Max, Kyle is in the car with him and everyone else is probably already camped out at Max’s even though there’s a better then likely chance that Alex will see everyone and barricade himself in Michael’s room.

But he also knows they all at least want to _see_ Alex alive and healthy for themselves, and if he sends it to just Max he’s going to get accused of playing favorites again and he doesn’t have time for the drama that will entail right now.

_we’ve got food_ from Liz almost immediately.

_Kyle sent me a recipe for a stew_ Max and Michael twists to look at Kyle who shrugs.

“We’re still easing into regular foods, didn’t want him to make his chili thing or that stew with the spicy biscuits and have to end up taking anyone to the emergency room.”

Oliver drives slowly as they come to the middle of town, stopping at a stop signs and Michael can tell the absolute second when Alex sees the museum, his cheeks flush just slightly and he rubs his hand against Colby’s arm before he looks at Michael.

There’s something hesitant in Alex’s eyes and Michael hates it; he brushes his fingers across Alex’s cheek and grins at him. Waits long seconds until Alex smiles back at him.

Then just keeps looking at him as they drive through town, past the Crashdown and the police station and half a dozen buildings that were home to other things the last time Alex was here and will be home to different things in a couple years’ time.

They drive past the apartment that Michael has lived in for a couple of years but won’t ever go back to, he doesn’t point it out because Isobel is a force of nature, she has likely already broken the lease and Alex will never need to ever step foot in it.

She’s probably already sold or donated every piece of furniture in it, at the very least the bed is going to be completely different because there’s no chance in hell that Isobel Evans is going to move a bed that Michael _might_ have fucked other people in, into the house that he’ll be sharing with Alex and Colby for the rest of their lives.

Max lives ten minutes out of town and they must have carpooled in since there’s only his truck and Max’s vehicle in the driveway; Maria’s truck, the Sheriff’s jeep and Arturo’s little car are lining the side of the road.

Every single light in the house is on which must be absolutely _killing_ Max who freaks out when Michael leaves the light in his bedroom on when he goes to the bathroom; and then the front door opens, and Max is standing there in the doorway.

“We can always go to the motel if it gets to be too much,” Ryder twists in his seat and looks at Alex. “The one I stayed in before smelled like piss, but I’m sure there’s got to be something of a better caliber if we need it.”

Oliver parks right behind Michael’s truck and he cuts the engine and palms the keys.

“We’ll be okay,” Alex says softly, Colby looks up at him and then over at Michael. Michael nods at him, drags his fingers through Colby’s hair which causes him to grin at him. Then opens the door, climbs out and waits for Colby to shift along the seat to him.

It’s a far cry from the last time he helped Colby out of a vehicle, he’s got sneakers on and jeans and t-shirt, he’s calm and looks around with interest while Michael holds out one hand for Alex to grab onto when he climbs out.

He doesn’t let go and Alex doesn’t squirm away, just squeezes his fingers and sets a hand on Colby’s shoulder to keep him close even though the only possible threat to Colby is too much hugging.

He thinks maybe Kyle has been texting back and forth with them while they’ve been driving, since only Max and Isobel are waiting just outside the door for them to get there.

Even with it just being the two of them there, even with Michael right beside him and two his brothers behind him, as well as Oliver and Kyle, Alex is shifting on his feet, fingers tight around his and Michael isn’t sure who’s going to be the first one to break.

“Okay, this is just getting ridiculous,” Isobel finally says, “Alex, hello, long time no see, I’ve already been told to not touch you unless I ask for permission first; can you introduce me to my nephew now please?”

It startles a laugh out of Alex, Michael thinks he’ll forever be grateful for Isobel’s lack of patience for awkward silences and just general lack of patience overall.

“I’ve already met you,” Colby says sensibly, “on the screen thing, papa said you were Aunt Isobel and Uncle Max, right?” he tilts his head up at Michael and Michael nods, draws fingers through his hair and smiles at him.

“But not in person,” Isobel says, and her smile is brilliant, whether it’s the Aunt Isobel or the fact that Colby called him papa he doesn’t know. Doesn’t think it really matters one way or another.

Colby turns back to Isobel and Alex’s fingers tighten just a bit more on Michael’s as Isobel holds out a hand. Colby looks up at Alex before he takes it, letting her draw him toward the house, Alex following, Michael still having his fingers gripped tightly moves along with him.

“We don’t need to loiter out here,” Isobel says, taking charge of the situation, “we can go inside and now that you’re here maybe Max will let us actually _eat_ something.”

“I’ve seen some of you eat,” Max mutters, “there wouldn’t have been any food left for them by the time they got here.”

Alex pauses a second before they follow Max in, they can already hear Liz and Maria and Colby’s giggling, Michael draws his hand up to his lips and presses a kiss against the back of it, tugs him just a bit closer.

“You need a minute just say the word,” he says and Alex looks so grateful, and just a little annoyed that he _is_ grateful.

“It’s just Maria and Liz,” Alex says, like he’s trying to give himself a pep talk.

“And my mom and Liz’s dad, not a single person in that room is anything but absolutely over the moon that you’re home finally,” Kyle says gently from behind them.

Alex takes a deep breath, then they follow behind Max into the house.

********************************

They want to come over, Alex can tell. He isn’t sure if it’s Michael perched on the arm of the chair next to him deterring them, or the fact that Ryder and Flint are hovering behind the chair like bodyguards.

He gets glances from Liz and Maria as they join Isobel in lavishing attention on Colby, Arturo and Max seem to be in quiet conversation in the corner of the living room and Kyle and his mom are in quiet conversation in the other. He’s not sure where Oliver disappeared to though Ryder doesn’t seem concerned.

He leans his head against Michael’s arm and keeps a close eye on Colby. He must close his eyes at some point because he has to blink them open when he feels a tap on his knee, Kyle’s mom is kneeling in front of him, watching him with soft eyes and a gentle expression. He’s not sure how long his eyes have been closed but Colby is now on the couch sandwiched between Isobel and Liz with a stuffed bunny clutched in his arms and Liz has a book open in front of her and appears to be reading it to him.

“Sorry,” he mutters, and Kyle’s mom shakes her head.

“You’ve nothing to be sorry for, I just wanted to tell you that I’m going, I think you and Colby are going to crash soon and some quiet time might not be amiss,” she says gently, she rubs her fingers against his knee and smiles at him. “I’m so very glad that you are home with us,” she murmurs and he covers her fingers with his own, hopes that she can’t feel them trembling.

“I’m going to go as well,” Arturo appears behind her, “Liz has strict instructions to bring you all for lunch when you are ready.”

Alex takes a long breath and pushes himself to his feet, Kyle’s mom stands in front of him and he doesn’t reach out, he can’t, he wishes he could.

Instead he stands there as she brushes soft fingers against his cheek and then a soft kiss in the same place. When she steps away, Arturo steps forward to ruffle his hair and he watches them wander the room to say their goodbyes, both enveloping Colby in hugs before they leave.

“Michael…” he says softly, helplessly, and Michael settles a hand low on his back and directs him away. Down a short dark hallway and into a lit room, the bed is made, and he can see their bags, both his and Colby’s and Michael’s sitting on the floor in front of a beat-up dresser.

He sits on the edge of the bed and Michael sits next to him, arm over his shoulder letting him lean into his side as he closes his eyes. He concentrates on breathing in and out, steady even breaths, concentrates on the weight of Michael’s arm over his shoulders and the soft press of his lips to his temple.

“Dad?” he hears from the door and when he opens his eyes he can see Colby there, still clutching the bunny that he doesn’t know where it came from, Maria is right behind him hand on the back of his head.

“Dad just needed some quiet time,” Michael says softly and Colby inches into the room, hopping up onto the bed and settling next to Alex. Maria stops right in front of them and there’s such a soft look in her eyes.

Such genuine joy in seeing him that it breaks him just a little that he can’t just let her hug him as tightly as he knows she wants to.

“Don’t even think that way,” she admonishes gently, she brushes two fingers against his forehead. “When you’re ready I’ll want the biggest, longest, tightest hug you can manage, we all will. But only when you’re ready not a moment before that.”

“I am happy to see you,” Alex says helplessly.

“And I’m happy to see you too, even with your questionable taste in guys…” she grins at him, “I can say that the two of you made the cutest kid ever, though that’s probably due more to your genes that Guerin’s.”

“Thanks DeLuca,” Michael drawls and she winks at him.

“I’m going to go, I think Liz and Isobel are staying here, and your brothers are flipping either a coin or each other over which of them is going to get the bed and the floor.”

********************************


	14. Chapter 14

**Missing 14/?**  


Michael isn’t sure what woke him, not at first. Then he feels the little fingers poking into his side and he rubs at his eyes and looks over at where Colby is blinking at him in the darkness.

“Papa I’m hungry,” Colby says softly, over Colby’s body he can see the curve of Alex’s shoulder, his face is soft and peaceful in sleep. He itches to reach out and stroke his fingers against his cheek, press a kiss to sleep warm skin.

He doesn’t.

Instead he eases out of bed, trying not to jar it to much so Alex can continue sleeping and Colby follows him, the bunny Isobel had given him still gripped tight in one arm.

The house is quiet, as they pass by the living room he can hear soft snores from the couch but he doesn’t look to see which one of Alex’s brothers ended up on it.

The clock on the microwave says it’s just past 6 am, he hopes at some point that Colby will reach the sleeping in stage of childhood, but he knows it’s probably not going to be any time soon.

“What are you guys doing up?” Max appears in the doorway while Michael is perusing the contents of his fridge.

“Colby’s hungry,” Michael says, jerking his head at where Colby is already sitting at the table, he’s on his knees and he’s got the bunny pressed between him and the edge of the table while he waits.

“I’ve got cereal, there’s eggs in there if you wanted to fry some of those up,” Max says, he looks rumpled and still tired, but there’s something soft in his eyes that Michael hasn’t seen there since they were kids. “Might be some sausage in the freezer.”

“What do you think?” Michael asks, “cereal or eggs?”

“Can we make the omelet thing again?” Colby asks carefully. “I liked that.”

Michael presses a loud kiss to the top of his head, ruffling his hair as he goes to get a bowl to mix the eggs up in.

“Alex still sleeping?” Max asks and when he turns back around, bowl in hand, Max has taken a seat at the table right next to Colby.

“We’re supposed to let dad sleep as much as he wants, he needs it,” Colby says, he presses his face into the back of the bunny’s head.

It had been one of the things that Kyle had said after Alex had given his statement, after he and Colby had woken up and Alex had been gone from their room but they’d gotten to the living room in the safe house in time to listen to him tell Ryder some of what had been done to him.

Michael wants to kill Jesse Manes, wants to snap his neck with his own two hands, but he also knows that he’s not going to get the chance. And that he wouldn’t do it unless he could have some guarantee that he’s not going to leave Alex alone _again_ to raise their kid by himself.

Michael has missed so much of Colby’s childhood, he wants to be there for the rest of it.

Max takes the bowl from his shaking hands.

“Go sit with my nephew, I can make them,” Max says, he squeezes his arm gently and Michael doesn’t think he’s ever been more grateful for Max’s take charge and lead the situation attitude.

He does what he’s told, goes to sit in the chair that Max had originally been in and Colby leans into his side while Michael lays an arm over his shoulder.

He sits there with Colby safe next to him, and Alex peacefully sleeping in his bed. He bends his head and closes his eyes, lets the hum of Colby telling Max about the omelets that Michael and Kyle and Ryder have made for him. His kid likes a plain ham and cheese omelet and he doesn’t need to open his eyes to see Max smirking at him because he likes it loaded with everything known to man.

Max sets plates in front of them, and Michael can smell the coffee already going even as Max sets a single serve orange juice carton with the straw already pushed in next to Colby’s plate. Before turning back to the stove to probably make his own.

Michael shifts Colby back into his own seat and goes to pour coffee for himself, looks at Max’s back turned to him as he makes up his own omelet and pours a cup for his brother as well before he settles back at the table to eat.

Flint comes in just as Max is sitting down with his plate and cup.

“I smell coffee,” he mutters and Michael hides his grin with his cup.

“Pan should still be hot if you want to make something,” Max says with a raised eyebrow and Flint shakes his head.

“Coffee,” he mutters again and Max waves a hand at the coffee maker and the cups hanging on hooks that Liz had badgered him into hanging up above it.

Michael finishes eating before Colby makes it even halfway through his omelet, and he leans back with the half full coffee in his hand and closes his eyes again.

“You should go back to bed papa,” Colby says seriously.

“You’re awake now,” Michael says, and they went to sleep at a relatively normal hour, he shouldn’t be this tired.

“We can put on some cartoons and stay with him,” Max says and Flint nods, “you’re going to be literally in the next room over, you’ll probably be able to hear the TV if you leave the door cracked.”

Michael weighs the idea of crawling back into bed with Alex and getting maybe another hour of sleep before Alex’s internal alarm clock starts going off to having to hide in the bathroom and get two minutes of a cat nap at some point during the day… he presses a kiss to the top of Colby’s head, ruffling his hair as Colby giggles at him.

“Isobel wants to take you guys over to the house this afternoon sometime,” Max says as Michael stands.

“If Isobel thinks it’s okay why…?” Michael frowns.

“No, her and Maria are both insistent you’re going to love it. And you know they don’t agree on anything so it’s probably as close to perfect as you’re going to get. She more wants to see if she can glean from Alex’s reactions what’s missing so she can make sure it has anything and everything you guys could or would want before you move in.”

Michael can’t think of what else they could possibly need, as long as it has a bed and working electronics they could probably make do for a while.

He leaves them in the kitchen, taking his coffee with him since he’s pretty sure he’s not going back to sleep, but the opportunity to curl up next to Alex for a few more minutes…. He’ll take it.

He leaves the door ajar and sets the cup on his one nightstand as he slides back in under the covers, Alex is flat on his back, arm flung above his head and looking so much like the teenager that he fell in love with all those years ago.

There’s been others, more then he’s ever going to admit to Alex in any conversation, but not a single one of them made him long for forever.

Not a single one of them made him long for family and a home, not one of them made him think about kids or any type of future where he did anything other than keeping his head down and protecting Max and Isobel.

But now he’s got Alex, and he’s got Colby. He’s going to have a home and a family that is more than just his siblings.

Alex’s nose wrinkles as Michael watches and he lets out a sigh and turns onto his side, curling into Michael, arm going over his chest, head on his shoulder and for a moment Michael freezes. Absolutely sure that Alex is going to startle himself awake and push away.

Instead he sighs again, and his body is a warm lax weight against the length of Michael’s body, he curves an arm around his shoulders, lays a hand across the one Alex has resting on his chest.

He doesn’t move any further, just closes his eyes and lets Alex curl into him, holds onto him while Alex lets him and doesn’t think twice about the coffee cooling on the nightstand.

********************************

He hadn’t thought he was going to sleep, not in _another_ strange bed in _another_ strange place, though this one smells like Michael and Michael was relaxed within the room, more so after they had closed the door and settled in the bed with Colby between them.

The last thing he really remembers is Michael asking, “Does your bunny have a name yet?” He’d had one arm over Colby, his hand just skimming Alex’s hip when Alex closed his eyes.

He doesn’t remember ever hearing a response, when he blinks awake its morning, there’s slivers a of light coming through the blinds in Michael’s room and he’s laying with his head on Michael’s chest, Michael’s arms around him.

It only serves to highlight the fact that Colby and his bunny are not in the bed between them anymore.

He stiffens and his breath catches in his chest.

“He’s watching cartoons with Max and Flint, think I heard Kyle get up a little bit ago,” Michael says softly.

“What time is it?” Alex manages to ask as he tries to decide if he should roll away or not. He’s comfortable and warm and Michael isn’t pressing, his arms are still light on him and Alex could move at any time.

“Eight or a little after, he was up about six, got hungry so we made some omelets, then he told me to go back to sleep, so I did.”

Alex hums, a noncommittal noise, he can hear the faint thumping of Michael’s heartbeat against his ear, his fingers pressing against his chest.

He breathes, slow steady even breaths and when he goes to shift away Michael lets him go, though he doesn’t move far. Just enough to press a kiss to the curve of Michael’s jaw. Lets his lips linger there for long enough that Michael presses a hand lightly against the back of his head.

He misses the easy familiarity they had with each other, it had been such a short time, mere hours in the grand scheme of things. They’ve been apart for longer then they ever really knew each other. But the memory of those hours, where they were _together_ together, where they made Colby and laughed and kissed and made love before it all went to hell.

“He’s not here,” Michael murmurs, hand still light on the back of his head, “he can’t touch you, either one you ever again,” he says fiercely.

When Alex goes to roll away Michael lets him, though he also rolls on his side so that they’re facing each other in the bed. Michael lays his hand over top of Alex’s, clutches it tightly before bringing it to his lips to pepper kisses across his knuckles.

“I’m a mess,” Alex whispers, “It’s not fair to you to…”

“I’m not going anywhere darlin’,” Michael drawls, lips quirking into a smirk. “Got a lot of time to make up for, and when you’re ready we’ll do that. Not going anywhere else without you, not again. Going to be you and me and Colby for the rest of it.”

********************************

Ryder wakes up with a crick right in the middle of his back and thinks Flint _had_ to have done something to sabotage the bed, it doesn’t seem right that the one in his crappy motel room was better than this one that he’s sure Max Evans spent actual money on.

He spends a good ten minutes trying to stretch out his back and then decides he’ll just have Oliver break it for him, he’ll likely feel better after.

He has four texts from David that must have come in after he passed out. The last one simply says _tell your mom that murder is murder no matter how big a POS your dad is_.

The lack of punctuation and capitalization lets him know how annoyed David must be with his entire family right now.

_On it, :). Good morning. Love you. <3_ he taps out, he sets the screen back to lock and goes into the tiny bathroom to brush his teeth and get dressed for the day.

He’s feeling only marginally more human when he walks out into the living room, Alex has got Colby folded up in his arms and they’re both smiling as Michael and Max are talking over one another. Flint is lounging in an armchair with a cup of coffee in hand looking surprisingly perky for someone who slept on the couch.

“You look rough, I think I’m glad I slept on the couch,” Flint observes, Ryder rolls his eyes at him and continues on into the kitchen where the coffee pot is thankfully full. Liz and Isobel are both sitting at the table hovering over what he guesses is Isobel’s laptop muttering back and forth to each other.

“You have good timing, Mom and Hunter should be here in like…” Flint appears in the doorway to the kitchen just as the knocks and doorbell start ringing. “Now I guess.”

Max makes it to the door first and when he opens the door there’s their mom, looking harried and annoyed and Hunter right behind her looking like he regrets every single life choice that has brought him to this moment.

“Where’s my baby?” she demands and shoves past Max like he’s not twice her size.

Alex has got Colby in front of him, both of their eyes are wide and Ryder can tell Alex is about two seconds from barricading the both of them in Michael’s room.

He intercepts her before she gets to them, hand on her arm, stopping her and trying not to cower from the force of her glare.

“Mom,” he says softly. He’s not talked to her, not since they found Alex, but he knows Flint has. Knows that Flint has probably shared only the barest of what Alex has been through. But he knows that would include the fact that Alex is traumatized, that he’s not going to be any form of an Alex that she remembers.

“Let me go Ryder,” she says, he doesn’t, he just stares at her until she stares back. Her eyes are red and there’s grief and anger there in equal measures.

“Just…” he starts and she lets out a loud breath.

“It’s okay Ryder,” Alex says softly and when Ryder turns he can see Michael is right beside him, hand probably low on his back, Colby has got his arms wrapped around Alex but he’s not hiding his face. He’s watching them.

He lets go of her arm and she doesn’t move, just reaches out and cups his face in her hand, “look out for your brother,” she murmurs softly and he nods.

It was the last thing she said before she left them with dad and didn’t come back, ‘look out for your brother, protect him’ and he’d tried, but he’d been just a kid it shouldn’t have been left up to him to protect his brother.

She can barely hold the smile and her eyes are filled with tears, he has no clue what dad actually told her about Alex going missing. There was no love lost between their parents, he wouldn’t put it past his dad to tell her the actual truth.

She doesn’t reach out and try and grab onto Alex, her hands are shaking so bad by the time she’s standing in front of him that he wonders if she’s going to collapse before she can even say a word.

She touches his cheek with the back of her hand and the sound she makes is inhuman, Alex flinches at the noise and Michael presses closer.

“I’m sorry,” she manages, she swipes a hand across her face and he can tell by the tone of her voice that she’s annoyed by the fact that she’s crying.

“Hi mom,” Alex mumbles and he’s looking at anything but her, Ryder thinks he might be focusing on the top of Colby’s head.

“Hi,” she says, she turns her hand over and cups his face in one of her hands, presses a kiss to his other cheek. “Introduce me to my grandbaby, love.”

“This is Colby,” Alex says softly, his hand is still pressed into Colby’s hair, though Colby is already looking up at their mom with curious eyes.

She drops her hands and goes smoothly down to her knees, holds out one hand for Colby to take and she smiles gently at him.

“January 12th,” she says softly as she touches his cheek gently, “how ‘bout I give you grandpa’s head on a silver platter, hmm?”

********************************


	15. Chapter 15

**Missing 15/?**  


Hunter has had about as much of their mom as he can take, so he ends up taking an empty seat in Isobel’s vehicle when she maneuvers them out of Max’s to go show off the house she has apparently purchased for them.

Alex isn’t sure how he feels about that, they’re adults, shouldn’t they be managing that on their own?

And then he thinks about the fact that he technically didn’t graduate high school, no matter that all their classes were done and they literally had to just show up for those last couple of weeks in order to walk, and that he has no skill set outside of ‘didn’t manage to get murdered by his dad’ which he’s pretty sure isn’t exactly marketable.

Colby has Michael’s cell phone in hand, playing another game on it.

The house that Isobel pulls up in front of is like all the others surrounding it, a burnt reddish color siding, tinted windows, cream shutters.

It looks clean and almost new.

“It’s got three bedrooms,” Isobel is saying as she leads them up the short sidewalk. “Two full baths, one half bath, a small room that could be used as an office or a spare bedroom, decent sized kitchen, one car garage,” she hands the key over to Michael who looks at him and Alex keeps one hand on Colby’s shoulder as he opens it.

Isobel and Hunter don’t follow them in, it’s just Michael leading them through the front door.

It’s…

They’ve been busy in the few short days they’ve had, and he doesn’t know how Isobel has done it, if she hired someone or has spent all her time in the house.

There are already pictures lining the entryway, some of them were taken in the safe house, pictures of him and Michael and Colby, some with Kyle and Ryder and even David, Oliver and Patrick thrown in.

There’s a little table with a mirror hanging on the wall over it and he can see his wide eyes reflected back at him.

Michael touches his back softly and urges him forward into the living room.

Everything is soft and inviting, Colby has already clambered up onto the beige and blue couch against the wall.

There’s more framed pictures and artwork on the wall.

“Is she half genie or something?” he asks as Michael slides an arm over his shoulder, tugging him close. Alex lets him as he tries to take in the whole room.

“Now there’s no internet yet, they’re coming by the end of the week,” Isobel says from behind them.

“Security system sucks,” Hunter states, arms crossed over his chest. “You should have Ryder and his guys take a look at that before you even think about moving in.”

“If I let Ryder have anything to do with the security system there will be lasers on the roof and a moat around the property lines,” Alex says slowly.

Hunter grins at him widely, “we’d likely help him dig the moat.”

“There will be no moat,” Isobel says firmly glaring at Hunter, who just shrugs and mouths ‘roof canons’ at him. “Or laser weapons on a roof, I’ve got somebody coming to review and update the security system, Ryder gave me a very _long_ list of specifics to forward onto them as well as a very _short_ list of people he would trust to make him happen.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t just handle it himself,” Hunter says.

“I think he was too preoccupied with making sure everyone kept all eyes on Alex and Colby, lest they disappear into thin air or something.”

********************************

“I still say murder is a valid choice,” mom is saying, she’s been saying the same thing in different ways since Isobel drove away with Alex, Michael, Colby and Hunter. Ryder has resorted to just burying his face in his hands.

“Murder is never a valid choice,” Flint says carefully, he’s enunciating all his words slowly, like maybe if he says it slowly enough, she’ll understand.

“In this case it really is,” mom says stubbornly, and Ryder doesn’t groan but only because it hasn’t gotten them anywhere. “What he put your brother through…”

“I was _there_, mom,” Flint snaps, voice brittle and harsh. “I was the one that fucking _found_ him, remember? Found _them_. I know what he’s been through, I know what dad fucking did to him… but there’s a right way to handle this and outright _murdering_ him isn’t good enough. He needs to suffer like he made Alex suffer, he needs to be locked up in a cell and…”

Ryder looks at him and Flint is pale in his fury and their mom is just staring at him. For all that Ryder thought Flint was a carbon copy of their dad growing up right now he looks so much like their mom that it’s almost startling.

“Don’t swear at me,” she states, “you’re not too old for me to take soap to your mouth.”

“I learned all the good cuss words from you in the first place,” Flint mutters and Ryder sighs.

“You want your dad to suffer, but you know that’s never going to happen,” she says finally.

“What do you mean?” Max asks from where he’s been a silent sentinel by the stove. Ryder had forgotten he was still there.

“This goes so much higher then Jesse,” she says. “He doesn’t control the strings here, maybe at Caulfield he controlled a few, but he’s not the one in charge of anything. He’s a peon, and they’re going to cut the ties to him and let him bury himself.”

“We’ve got all the records from Caulfield,” Ryder says, “and the other four survivors we found with them.”

She just stares at him, doesn’t say anything and he knows she’s not wrong. He’s not sure how they’ll do it, but they’ll figure out how to get everything pinned to his dad, maybe someone a little higher then him will also get folded in, likely someone they’re already trying to rid themselves of.

“We found out where they moved the ones that Alex and Colby were supposed to be moved with too,” Flint says. “It’s just a matter of time…”

“They’ll make it look like an accident; maybe suicide in his cell, or they’ll make it look like an escape attempt, so it can be chalked up to justifiable homicide. There’s no way they’re going to let this go to trial of any sort,” she says. “They’re going to cut their losses as quickly and as cleanly as they can and we can only hope that the only interest they had in your brother was because of your father.”

********************************

The room that Isobel has earmarked as Colby’s has a bed with no sheets and nothing on the wall.

“I know,” Isobel say from next to him, there’s an edge to her voice that Michael can place as frustration. “It’s not much, I’m still getting a feel for him,” she says. The bed is bare, the walls are bare, but Michael can understand her frustration.

Michael has spent almost every minute with Colby and Alex since they got them back, and his son is still a mystery to him. He’s a blank slate that has no likes that Michael can really pinpoint besides his dad.

Which Michael gets, he really likes Alex too.

But he’s not a dinosaur kid or car kid or an any type of kid yet.

“He likes playing games on my phone,” Michael offers. “Maybe we just need to take them shopping? Have him see the choices he’s got, let him pick some stuff out himself?”

Isobel just looks at him with a raised eyebrow, and she knows him, he doesn’t _do_ shopping. Not if he can help it, though for Colby and for Alex he thinks he’d be willing to do it.

“Max said he was just _kind_ of interested in the cartoons this morning but nothing got him really entranced or starstruck,” Isobel sighs. “I’m going to leave a tablet with Alex and see if we can at least get an idea for something, the walls scream institutionalized and we’re not doing anything that’s going to remind them of where they’ve been.”

Michael doesn’t think its going to matter for a little while, they’ve got time. Alex and Colby have been joined at the hip for so long, that he doesn’t think their son is going to be able to sleep by himself for a while.

Doesn’t think Alex is going to be able to _let_ Colby sleep in a room by himself for a while. And as much as Michael really wants to have Alex to himself, he’s okay with that. Because if they’re in the same place he can keep eyes on both of them.

He twists when he hears the steps behind them, Colby and Alex are coming down the hallway toward them, Hunter trailing along behind them looking bemused with a phone in his hand.

Alex has a hand on Colby's shoulder keeping him close and Michael can see the brightness in his eyes that screams that he’s just about reached an overload point. He nudges Isobel and she’s already turning to the door, grabbing at Hunter’s arm and closing it behind them as they step into the hallway.

As soon as the door closes Alex backs into the wall, sinking to the floor, legs straight out in front of him. Colby cuddles up right next to him on his knees, head on Alex’s shoulder as Alex wraps an arm around his shoulders tugging him into his lap.

Michael sits next to him, not too close so Alex doesn’t feel like he’s being crowded.

His breathing is rough and Michael’s not _completely_ sure but he thinks Alex might be having a panic attack.

Colby is murmuring something softly enough that Michael can’t make it out.

They sit there like that for long minutes, Alex with his head bowed low and Colby’s soft murmurs and Michael just concentrating on keeping his breathing smooth and even. When Alex finally lifts his head and looks at him his eyes are red and wet.

“I’m sorry,” he says thickly and Michael wants to reach out and take his hand, wants to scream because Alex has absolutely nothing to apologize for.

“Do you not like the house?” he asks, he thinks Isobel would keep it for herself if for some reason Alex doesn’t like it. He doesn’t think that’s it though.

“I like it,” Alex says, he looks at Colby, smooths a hand down the side of his head as Colby smiles at him, eyes still wide with a hint of worry, but relaxing as Alex calms down. “I just…” he lets out a long sigh, “Hunter was talking about cable and internet, and needing to get a bigger TV for the living room and maybe a speaker system for some reason. And how we’ll need to go grocery shopping and fill the refrigerator and the freezer and what kind of fruit Colby wants to eat and I just…” the swallow is loud but his next words are so soft that Michael has to strain to hear them.

“How are we paying for this?” he whispers.

“You’re worried about money,” he says, he blinks at him, it’s been a lot of years since he wondered where the money for bills was coming from.

“I didn’t even graduate from high school,” Alex mutters, “and my last job was at the UFO Museum. I’m _literally_ an afterschool special with a dash of horror movie for fun.”

“You don’t need to worry about money, not for that,” Michael says carefully, he’s sure this is going to be a minefield. He’s equally sure he’s not equipped to navigate it. But money isn’t something Alex has to worry about, not ever.

“We can’t just live off you for the rest…”

“Yeah, darlin’, you can,” Michael says. “At least until Is and your brothers figure out how to sue the government over your illegal imprisonment, then you can, I don’t know, put money in a college fund for Colby or something.”

“Michael…”

“I missed ten years,” Michael mutters, “I missed his first words and first steps and first laughs, I missed Christmases and birthdays and…” Alex reaches out a hand, sets it over top the one that Michael is clenching into a fist. His touch is light and Michael turns his hand over so he can fold their hands together.

“Let me take care of you? Both of you? Please?” He sounds like he’s begging, he kind of feels like he is too, he doesn’t really care a bit.

“I don’t want to be a burden,” Alex says, his fingers squeeze around Michael’s.

“Never,” Michael says emphatically, “if you want to sit on the couch and eat cookie dough ice cream and cuddle with Colby for the rest of our lives then I think you kind of deserve the opportunity to do that.”

Alex’s lips curve into the barest hint of a grin as he looks at him.

They’ve been through literal hell, it’s the least they deserve, to not have to worry about anything besides getting up in the morning and going to bed at night. Michael is just hoping that Alex is going to want him to be there for all of it.

“Can I hold you?” he asks quietly, he’s prepared for Alex to say no, he still looks a little on edge even though he’s relaxed a lot since it’s only the three of them in the room.

He thinks he manages to not showcase his surprise when Alex shifts closer to him, lets Michael wrap an arm over his shoulder and tug him even closer.

Colby moves over to his other side, lays his head on his shoulder and Alex curls his body just the slightest bit more into his, folding his legs up and letting them rest against his thighs.

Michael presses a kiss to the top of Colby’s head, then twists to press his lips to Alex’s temple, lets them linger there as Alex breathes against him and Michael closes his eyes.

Outside the room he’s sure that Isobel and Hunter are pacing, but they’re probably also planning out whatever still needs to be taken care of so Michael can move Alex and Colby into the house sooner rather than later.

********************************


	16. Chapter 16

**Missing 16/?**  


“What do you think they’re talking about in there?” Isobel asks, when they’ve exhausted all avenues of small talk up to and including the current weather twice.

“Money,” Hunter says after a brief pause, “probably not sex or anything like that.”

Isobel arches a brow at him but he’s not looking at her so the effect is likely ruined.

“I would hope not, my nephew is in that room with them,” she states, he looks back at her strictly to roll his eyes. “And why would Alex be worrying about money? He won’t ever need to worry about that.”

Isobel knows that Michael’s bank accounts are healthy, mostly because he insisted on living in that apartment building that should have been condemned and the Airstream which should be junk.

The most expensive things he owns are his laptop and his cowboy hat.

“So what’s the plan for rest of the afternoon?” Hunter asks.

“I thought we’d swing by and see Rosa before we go back to Max’s to meet our mom, but I don’t think we’re going to have time so we’ll have to plan that excursion for another day.”

“Why wasn’t Rosa at Max’s?” Alex asks from behind them, Isobel turns and see’s them standing right at the edge of the hallway, she hadn’t even heard the door open or them walking the few steps. Michael has his arm around Alex’s shoulder, while Alex doesn’t have his arm around Michael, he _is_ leaning into his touch, plus he doesn’t look as if a panic attack is imminent which Isobel counts as progress.

Colby has hold of Alex’s hand though Alex squeezes it and nudges him in the direction of the couch which Colby happily bounds on to.

“You didn’t tell him?” Isobel asks and Michael shrugs at her.

“Kyle didn’t say anything either,” Michael says, like that really means anything.

“Tell me what?” Alex asks, the tone of his voice has a bit of an edge to it. “What’s happened to Rosa?”

“Back about the time you went missing…” Isobel starts slowly, she doesn’t look at Michael who is clenching the fist that he’d had wrapped in towels and gauze at that time or at Alex who hadn’t gone _missing_ so much as he’d been abducted and imprisoned by his father.

She instead focuses on Colby who has Michael’s phone in his hand somehow and is ignoring them all.

“There was an accident,” Isobel says softly, “two girls were killed and Rosa…”

“She’s been in a state of catatonic shock since,” Michael says, obviously taking pity on her.

“Rosa would never…” Alex starts and Isobel shakes her head.

“No, and Jasmine and Kate both overdosed whether by their own hands or by someone else’s they don’t know, they…”

“They who?” Hunter asks and Isobel swings her head over to look at him.

“The FBI agents who come twice a year to try and interview her even though they would be notified if there was any change in her condition and she would be able to give a statement to them finally,” Michael mutters.

“They think she was just lucky enough to survive, that…” Isobel shakes her head, takes an even breath and releases it, builds up her walls of composure and looks over at Alex.

“I was supposed to meet her there, for a very long time I was their number one suspect, Max and Michael my theoretical accessories,” Isobel says. “But Michael had one working hand and I was late because…” her voice drifts off because she doesn’t know why she was late, still, to this day, doesn’t have the first _idea_ why she didn’t make it to the meeting spot in time.

She’d planned on it, she’d been ready but she has a blank space of time that encompasses almost two hours and when she fought her way out of it she was sitting in her bedroom with Max and Michael frantic in front of her.

They wouldn’t let her meet Rosa by herself, too worried about whatever was happening to her, about the blackouts that to this day they still don't know the true extent of. Let alone whatever or _whoever_ was _causing_ them in the first place.

They’d trailed along behind her, bickering the whole way and now, in hindsight, Isobel can vaguely remember seeing Michael’s hand wrapped but she also remembers not asking any of the questions she should have been asking.

When they’d gotten to the meeting point, Jasmine and Kate were already dead, there’d been no saving them but Rosa… she’d had marks around her neck and on her face and Isobel wonders if she’d been there like she should have been if she would have ended up like Jasmine and Kate or would she have been right beside Rosa fighting for her life.

Alex is just looking at her like he knows where her mind has gone; he shifts on his feet and ends up just the tiniest bit closer to Michael.

She _knows_ it’s probably unlikely… it still doesn’t stop her from hoping that Alex being back home might be the thing that brings _Rosa_ back home as well.

********************************

Alex doesn’t really remember Mrs. Evans from before, he’d been school friends with Max not _actual_ friends. And he probably quite honestly wouldn’t have been able to count Isobel among his friends regardless of her not so secret, secret relationship with Rosa or not.

She’s a force of nature though, commandeering the conversation from the beginning and Michael might not call her mom but she’s definitely lauding his accomplishments and talking him up as if he does and she is.

The lunch conversation is the easy type where he doesn’t actually have to say anything unless someone asks him a pointed question, and he can watch as Mrs. Evans fawns over Colby.

“I’ve got some calls in to the high school, they’re reviewing your transcripts to see where you were when your father decided to be a miserable excuse for a human being,” she says as she’s leaving, she’s smiling brilliantly at him and Alex sort of reflexively smiles back.

“You don’t have to…” he starts and she waves a hand at him.

“It was the only thing that was left to be looked into,” she says and her eyes soften a bit as she looks at him.

“Thank you,” he mumbles and she just smiles.

“Next time we’ll do lunch at my house, it’ll be a little less cramped,” she says as Max offers her his arm so he can walk her out to his car.

“So do I just ask what your dowry price is or do I have to get a lawyer and they haggle it between them?” he asks as Michael pulls him away from the door and into the living room where Colby is already sitting with a tablet in hand and Isobel hovering beside him.

“You gave her a grandkid, I think you already met and exceeded it,” Michael says with a shrug. “She can be a bit much,” he continues as Alex sits down next to Colby, their son leans into his side and Alex glances at the screen to see that Isobel has got Colby looking at room décor aimed at his age bracket.

“It’s because Michael is her favorite,” Isobel says, she smirks at Michael.

“I’m not her favorite,” Michael states as he sits beside Alex, curving his arm over his shoulders and Alex doesn’t even really think about it before he leans into his side and rests his head against his shoulder.

“You’re totally her favorite,” Max says when he comes back in, he flops in the one empty chair. “And Is and I are perfectly okay with that, you know this.”

“Dad can we put _stars_ on my ceiling?” Colby asks breathlessly, there’s a layer of excitement to his voice that Alex doesn’t remember ever hearing before.

“We can do whatever you want in your room,” Alex says and there’s a twist in his stomach at the thought of Colby sleeping somewhere that isn’t right beside him so that he knows by touch that Colby is there and okay.

Being free means that Colby doesn’t _have_ to share the narrow beds with him anymore, doesn’t have to share a tiny cell with him.

He can have his own room, and his own space and they can decorate it however he wants it decorated instead of sterile white walls and bright lights and no way out of it unless they were in restraints.

When he glances down at the tablet it doesn’t surprise him that the room that Colby is hovering on is space themed. Glow in the dark stars on the ceiling and walls, a mural with the solar system and complete with a spaceship.

“It’s like the stories that Miss Mara and Mr. Tanner used to tell us, remember, dad?” Colby ask softly and Alex leans down to press a kiss to the top of his head. “Do you think they’re okay?”

“I don’t know,” Alex says truthfully.

“They found them,” Max says, “Your brother said something about them having figured out where they moved them, I don’t know if…”

There’s a tiny bit of hope blooming in Alex’s chest that he’s sure has nothing on the brightness in Colby’s face.

********************************

“It’s nice,” Ryder says as he looks at the house that Isobel has purchased for Alex, Michael and Colby.

“It needs a higher fence in the backyard,” Flint says arms crossed over his chest. “And there’s a couple of trees that need to be removed, maybe they can be transplanted to the areas that need a bit more cover.”

“A couple hundred years ago we could have dug a moat and put some nasty crocodiles in it and called it a day,” their mom mutters from his other side.

“I don’t think Alex is going to allow us to dig a moat, and the fence in the backyard is high enough, it meets our usual standards for what I would recommend.”

“This is Alex and Colby,” Flint says, like he needs the reminder. Ryder doesn’t roll his eyes and considers it nothing short of a miracle

“You know 852 is for sale,” their mom says idly. “Weren’t you and David talking around buying a house?”

“I’m not going to buy a house across the street from them just so I can keep an eye on Alex once he finally says enough is enough,” Ryder says, he’s figuring that Alex’s tipping point is going to be fairly soon after they’re allowed to move into the house.

Alex is going to want to get things to as normal as they can manage for Colby, that’s going to mean not having his brothers around every corner with poorly concealed weapons and scowling faces, or cameras in every room waiting for a worst-case scenario to happen.

Dad is in custody, there hasn’t even been a whiff of anyone showing any interest in Alex or Colby besides the fact that they’re victims in this whole thing.

He leaves mom and Flint arguing over who’s going to buy the house if it’s not going to be Ryder and walks the fence lining the backyard.

“Couple of weak points, easily fixable,” Oliver says falling into step with him.

“What about cameras?”

“I’d recommend one at the kitchen door, one at the front door and maybe one pointed towards the living room but that one might be a hard sell,” Oliver says.

“Security system itself?”

“Old school but functional; doesn’t look like the previous owners used it all, definitely needs at the very least some updates if not a full upgrade. I already drew up some specs.”

“I thought we weren’t handling it?” Ryder asks, even though he knows that if Oliver already has this much detail that David has basically given him carte blanche for them to take care of it.

“He’s your kid brother, you really think David was going to be able to hand over the responsibility of keeping him and your nephew safe over to anyone else?”

********************************


	17. Chapter 17

**Missing 17/?**  


Colby has a tight grip on his hand as Isobel walks them through the hallways of the home they’ve got Rosa in.

It’s really nice, a _lot_ nicer then he thought it would be considering.

“How is this even being paid for?” he mumbles, he hates that his mind automatically goes to the money and that there is _no way_ that Arturo is paying for this.

“I pay for most of it,” Isobel says brightly, her heels are clacking in the hallway that is mostly quiet, though there is the low hum of voices spilling out of rooms with doors half-opened. “Sheriff Valenti left a trust that pays for a small amount of it as well when he died.”

“Kyle’s dad?” Alex glances over at Michael who doesn’t seem at all surprised by this revelation.

“Long, complicated story… tell you later,” Michael says softly. “Or maybe I’ll make Kyle and Liz explain it to you.” Michael is right beside him, hand pressing gently into his back.

“Now it’s Thursday so Maria is likely here,” Isobel says as they stop in front of a fully closed door, there is a tag that says ‘Ortecho, R’ on the door.

“She’s just hoping that you being back will be the thing that shocks Rosa into waking up,” Michael says, he holds out his hand for Colby to take. “Why don’t we sit out here and let dad and Aunt Isobel go in there by themselves,” Colby looks back and forth between them.

Alex runs a hand over his head and then nudges him in Michael’s direction.

“Sit with papa, we’ll just be a few minutes,” he promises and Colby’s mouth twists, but he takes Michael’s hand and lets him lead him over to the chair against the wall, only looking back at him three times before settling in the chair between Michael and Hunter.

When he looks back Michael and Colby have their heads bent together over Michael’s phone as he lets Isobel usher him into the room.

The room is bright and when he steps around Isobel, letting the door shut behind him, he can see Maria already on her feet.

“Alex,” Maria says warmly, she’s smiling brightly at him and he takes a few steps forward, keeps the bed and Rosa between them. There’s something in her eyes that screams that she knows he did that on purpose.

“I’m going to go check in with the nurses,” Isobel says as they stand there in silence for long seconds.

“She thinks she’s sneaky coming when visiting hours are over for the day,” Maria says rolling her eyes as she sits back down in the chair she’d been occupying.

Alex doesn’t respond, he doesn’t think Maria is really requiring him to. Instead he studies Rosa, she’s laying there with her eyes closed, face slack in what looks like sleep.

She’s so still.

“I’d say you could talk to her, that she’d hear you, know you’re here and everything… you know like the say coma patients can hear when their loved ones talk to them…” Maria says softly, she reaches out and touches Rosa’s hand gently. “But she can’t hear you.”

No, she can’t, Alex stares down at Rosa’s familiar features, she’s not in there. There’s not a hint of the girl that he remembers.

He sits down in the chair nearest him, folds his hands together in this lap and doesn’t look at Rosa anymore.

“You look better,” Maria says quietly, when he meets her eyes she smiles gently at him. “More relaxed, calmer… settled,” she says tilting her head and staring at him with wide knowing eyes and an expression on her face that makes her look _exactly_ like her mom.

“It’s not fair to him,” Alex mutters, he rubs his palms over the rough material of the jeans he’d managed to pull on that morning.

“I think he would probably beg to differ,” Maria says.

Alex takes a deep breath, then another one, bites at his lower lip as he stares at the window over Maria’s shoulder.

“He had a whole life before he found out…”

“He had a half-life, you talk to anyone in this town about Guerin… though maybe don’t do that,” her nose wrinkles. “I didn’t know about you guys until just a couple months ago, but honestly once he told us, it made things, made his _behaviors_ make a _lot_ more sense. He was biding his time, keeping himself busy because that man doesn’t tolerate boredom well or _at all_, he’s been waiting for you to come home…”

“I don’t even know if I can, if _we_ can…” Alex says helplessly. “It was so easy and now it feels like every touch is a struggle…”

“You’ve been through a trauma, Alex,” she says softly. “No one is expecting that the two of you are going to be able to jump into bed and pick up where you left off, least of all Michael. You need to talk to someone, probably alone as well as together, try to process things as best you can. I’m pretty confident in saying that however long it takes for you feel comfortable moving forward, Michael is going to waiting right there for you when you’re ready.”

Alex rubs at his chest, where his heart aches and doesn’t rub at his burning eyes because he doesn’t _want_ to cry, not out here in public even if it’s just Maria and Rosa in the room with him and both of them have seen him in worse off then tears.

“I want to kiss him,” he admits in a whisper, he’s not sure if he’s hoping that Maria can’t hear him so he can deny ever saying it or not.

“So kiss him,” Maria says, he meets her eyes and her face is soft and there’s a small smile curving her lips. “He’s not going to push for anything more then you’re willing to give him, and if he tries you let me know and I make good use of Mama DeLuca’s shotgun.”

********************************

“How are you doing?” Max asks when he corners him in the kitchen that night, Alex is helping Colby get ready for bed, he’s pretty sure this really means that Colby is splashing around in the tub and Alex is sitting on the toilet laughing at him.

“I’m good,” Michael says slowly, Max has his earnest face on, which normally means that Michael is three sentences away from a lecture about drinking or sex. He’s pretty sure it’s not going to be either of those things though because he hasn’t had a drop of alcohol since they found Alex and hasn’t had sex since _before_ they found Alex.

He’s practically been a monk and done absolutely nothing to warrant the earnest face.

“Been a lot of stuff happening really fast recently,” Max starts and Michael sighs.

“Isobel talked to you, didn’t she?”

“And Kyle, they’re both pretty big on mental health stuff,” Max shrugs, “I’d think maybe they joined a cult or something, but they don’t spend any time together outside of when we’re all here and I’m pretty sure I would notice if _I_ were in a cult.”

“I already told Is I’d talk to someone at some point,” Michael says, he leaves it as noncommittal as that, because he’ll do it when he’s damn good and ready and not a moment before.

“Still…” Max says and Michael doesn’t sigh, because it’s not going to get Max out of his face any sooner.

“We’re good,” he says instead, “think Alex will relax even more when we’re in a space he can maybe consider his.” And Colby will follow suit after his dad.

“He liked the house then?”

“We had to talk about the money thing, but I think that went okay,” Michael isn’t totally sure that they won’t have _several_ more conversations around money and where it’s coming from. He’s half tempted to print out a bank statement so Alex can see how very much they don’t need to worry about money.

“I don’t think a single person here would fault him if he wanted to be a stay at home dad and homeschool Colby for the rest of his life,” Max says, and Michael just shrugs.

“You’re probably going to need more towels in your bathroom, your kid really likes his baths,” Max says after they stand there not saying anything.

“Someone gave him the stuff for bubble baths, and he gets a kick out of it,” Michael says, even as he takes the out and heads towards the small room where Max has his washer and dryer hidden away.

Some industrious person has done laundry but left it all in the dryer, he scowls but pulls them out one by one to fold them on top of the dryer.

“Max said you were back here,” Alex says softly, when Michael twists he can see him standing there, hands shoved into his pockets to keep himself from fidgeting. There’s something tentative but determined in his eyes and Michael’s not sure what’s happening, but he leans against the open dryer and focuses all his attention on Alex.

“You okay?” he asks quietly and Alex’s mouth twitches and he bites at his lower lip as he steps into the room and closer to him. It’s closer then Alex has moved on his own that hasn’t directly followed Michael asking to hold him or hug him or just touch him in general.

Michael doesn’t hold his breath because he really doesn’t want to pass out right now.

Alex’s fingers are soft on his face, and when he takes the one step closer that has them _just_ touching Michael does hold his breath.

It can barely be called a kiss, it’s just the innocent press of Alex’s lips to his. He touches one hand to the side of Alex’s head, just a gentle stroke of his fingers against his ear, rests his thumb against his cheekbone and closes his eyes when Alex presses just the tiniest bit closer and kisses him again.

He rests his other hand on his hip, not holding, just touching, he can feel the way Alex is trembling against his fingertips.

The second kiss is just as chaste, it’s still hands down one of the best.

Because it’s Alex kissing him, it’s Alex tilting their foreheads together and Michael stands there with his eyes closed and breathes in time with him.

It’s Alex who can’t even think about hugging his friends, who can’t hug his _brothers_ or _mother_ without having a panic attack and having to flee the room.

“What brought this on?” he asks quietly, he strokes his fingers across Alex’s skin, touches his thumb to the bow of his lip.

“You had a life,” Alex says softly, “and it’s not fair to you…”

Michael presses his fingers to Alex’s lips, opens his eyes and looks at him.

“It’s not fair to you, either,” Michael says, “I had a life, yeah, but you didn’t have any choices and now you’re out and you’re free and you could do and go anywhere…”

“I don’t want to be anywhere you aren’t,” Alex says, and there’s something determined in his voice. Of this Michael thinks, Alex is very sure.

“Then we’re not on any sort of time table, there’s not a silent clock counting down that if you’re not ready by Thursday we’re done. I’ll be right here when you’re really ready.”

Alex huffs a sigh that sounds like frustration, then leans forward and kisses him again, lips clinging to his and Michael thinks that it wouldn’t take much to turn the kiss into something else.

But he’s equally sure that whatever else Alex is _not_ ready for that something else… not yet anyways.

“I like kissing you,” Alex says against his lips and Michael grins, he can’t himself.

“Well then you feel free to kiss me whenever you want, because I like kissing you too… and I’m never going to say no to Alex kisses, not after having gone ten years without any,” he says and Alex smiles his little smile at him.

Then leans forward and kisses him again, bites his lower lip for good measure then twists away and darts out of the little laundry room while Michael stands with what he assumes is an idiotic expression on his face.

“I think you guys are going to be okay,” comes from behind him and he turns to see Liz standing in the corner by the other door, he hadn’t even heard her come in and he wonders how long she’s been standing there.

“I didn’t want to interrupt,” she says and she’s beaming her wide happy smile at him and if she were a cartoon character she would have heart eyes.

********************************

Ryder doesn’t think their dad has changed anything about the house since they were kids. It’s all the same pictures, same furniture.

It’s all the same, he’s not been back more then a handful of times since he left at eighteen. His room is still exactly as he left it when he left for basic. Not a thing has been moved.

Where the other doors had always stood wide open, any time Ryder had visited after Alex disappeared, the door to Alex’s room had always been firmly shut, he’s actually kind of surprised that his dad didn’t just junk everything in the room to erase Alex from existence.

It’s not like his dad had ever planned on Alex leaving the facilities in any way.

But he hadn’t, so now Ryder gets to stand shoulder to shoulder with Hunter in the doorway and look over the contents of his little brothers’ room that haven’t been touched since Alex was seventeen and a little emo punk kid with piercings and eyeliner.

“Alex isn’t going to want any of this stuff,” he says.

“Pictures and stuff, I wouldn’t bother with the clothes,” their mom pushes past them, standing at the end of Alex’s bed and there’s been a haunted expression on her face since they stepped inside. Ryder _knows_ she hasn’t set foot in this house since she left.

He doesn’t think it’s escaped her notice that there isn’t a single photo of her to be found within these walls unless it’s hidden in some careful hiding place in one of their rooms.

“He’d probably get a kick out of the guitar,” Hunter says and Ryder laughs his agreement, Alex had been trying to take ownership of the guitar since before he even knew it could make noise.

“Can’t believe Flint managed to get out of creepy house detail, lucky bastard,” Ryder mutters as he takes the guitar by the neck when Hunter hands it over to him.

Flint had disappeared in the morning, muttering in his phone as he went so the tedious task of figuring out if there was anything that Alex might want from their dads house when none of them wanted Alex stepping a single _foot_ into the house had fallen to Hunter, mom and him.

He thinks he’d much rather be riding shotgun with Flint muttering and grumbling in the drivers seat then looking at pictures that show his dad being father of the year to every one of them but Alex.

“How hard do you think they’d investigate if we just torched the entire house?” mom asks, Ryder glances over at her and she’s staring at him with intense serious eyes.

“We’re not burning the house down, mom,” Hunter says firmly.

“Can we take all of your dads stuff out and burn _that_ then? Maybe take a couple of baseball bats to it, a gun or two… I think it would be a very therapeutic exercise for Alex.”

********************************


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope every stays safe and healthy during these troubling times.
> 
> Also, Jesse Manes is his own warning. So... :)

**Missing 18/?**  


“To the left,” he says, and he gets an exasperated sigh and some muttering that he can’t understand and probably doesn’t want to.

“My left or your left?” Hunter asks with a put-upon tone and Ryder rolls his eyes because Oliver had been helping him get the cameras positioned until Hunter came out to send Oliver in to find out what mom had done to all the electronics in the house.

“Well your left is going to have the camera pointed directly into the light, which defeats the purpose of the camera don’t you think?” Ryder mutters and Hunter grumbles more but shifts the camera in Ryder’s direction.

“Down a bit,” Ryder says, the resolution on the tablet isn’t the best, he wishes he had his laptop, but Oliver had taken it into the house with him to undo whatever their mom had done to all the electronic devices inside the house.

“How far?” Hunter asks and Ryder can see the picture shifting.

“That’s good there,” he says and Hunter grunts as he leans over the edge of the ladder, Ryder opens up on the other two cameras and makes sure the pictures are still operational.

“Don’t know how I feel about Alex moving in here,” Hunter says as he climbs down the ladder.

“I think Alex and Colby and Michael need some privacy,” Ryder doesn’t like it either, what if something happens?

What if whoever his dad had _actually_ been working for; whatever nameless, faceless person or people decide they aren’t _actually_ done with Alex and Colby and decide to make a grab for them when they’re alone in this house.

“I think Michael already knocked our baby brother up once, what are the chances do you think that he’ll actually put a ring on his finger before he _knocks_ him up again?” Hunter grumbles.

“You going to pull a shotgun out and force the issue? I don’t think Alex will thank you for butting your nose in,” Ryder says with an arched brow.

“I think Alex would actually make me best man,” Hunter smirks at him, Ryder rolls his eyes at him. “For that matter what about you and David, it’s been two years now, don’t think I didn’t notice where your mail is all being forwarded to…”

His phone vibrates in his pocket saving him from having to comment, when he pulls it out he can see David’s face smiling at him.

“Hey, I thought you were calling tonight?”

“Where are you right now?” David asks, there’s something in his voice, an edge that frankly Ryder hasn’t heard in years and hoped to never hear ever again.

“We’re at Alex and Michael’s new place putting up the cameras, why?” Ryder says slowly, he can see Hunter shifting out of the corner of his eyes, phone already out of his own pocket and in hand. “What’s happened?”

“I need you to stay calm,” David says.

“I’m totally calm,” Ryder says, it’s an absolute lie, his heart is hammering in his chest so loudly he thinks that David can probably hear it through the phone.

David knows it’s a lie, he doesn’t calm him out on it though.

“They were transferring your father from the hospital to a military holding cell this morning, he escaped from custody.”

Ryder lets out a long even slow breath and looks at where Hunter already has his phone pressed to his ear.

All he can hear is pandemonium on the other end of the line, someone yelling, a child crying, he sags against the wall and closes his eyes. Doesn’t even open them when he hears the front door open and his moms’ hands gentle on his face.

“We’re maybe thirty minutes out, let us know where to meet you,” David is saying, and he nods even though he knows David can’t see him.

“They were shopping for stuff for Colby’s room, for stuff for the kitchen that Isobel insisted they were going to need when they moved in this weekend,” he says numbly, David probably doesn’t need to know that.

“So the Walmart then, we’ll meet you there,” David says, the line goes dead.

“Alex is missing,” Hunter says, and he looks infuriated, “Colby and Michael are losing their shit.”

“Dad escaped,” Ryder says, he rolls his shoulders, tries to put his game face back on.

Their mom looks pissed, face set and hard and if she comes within spitting distance of their dad one of them isn’t walking away and Ryder is putting _all_ of his money on mom coming out on top in that fight.

“See if you had just let me kill your dad we wouldn’t be worrying about this now.”

********************************

Colby is sobbing like his heart is breaking, Michael isn’t sure what’s worse, the sobbing or the screaming. The screaming has stopped though, now it’s just the never-ending sobs against his shoulder where Michael has got him folded up in his arms, Colby clinging to him with all his strength.

“Michael…” Max is in front of him, in uniform, gun on his hip. Over his shoulder Michael can see Jenna Cameron talking to Isobel, heads bent closed together.

“Dads gone,” Colby sobs and Michael closes his eyes.

“We’re going to find him,” Max promises him, he touches Colby’s head gently, then just as gently touches the top of Michael’s.

“Store has security cameras pointed at the doors, one aimed at the jewelry counter and one in the parking lot,” Jenna says, “store manager is queueing them up now.”

“Max’ll stay here with his family,” the Sheriff says when she steps up, “we’ll take a look and figure out what we’re dealing with.”

“He wouldn’t just take off,” Michael says.

“Sheriff knows that,” Max says softly.

“It was literally five minutes,” he says, he holds Colby just that slightest bit tighter, a tiny small part of him is comforted by the fact that their son is still here even if Alex isn’t. “He was out of our sight for five minutes…”

There’s a commotion at the front door to the store and when Michael looks he can see Ryder and Hunter, their mom following along behind and David with Oliver and Patrick on either side of him.

“We’re going to find him,” Ryder says swiftly, there’s steely determination in his eyes and Michael knows that Alex’s brothers are going to move heaven and earth to get him back.

********************************

The snapshot they manage to get is someone took Alex from the store.

“Can’t you blow it up, enhance it, you know?” Isobel asks, even though she knows without Ryder or his tech person needing to answer her that this isn’t TV, it doesn’t work that way.

The man with his hand wrapped around Alex’s arm is slightly taller then him, thin build, nothing about him screams kidnapper.

He looks like the type of guy that Isobel would have dated once upon a time.

“We need to find them on the cameras in the parking lot, see if we can get a vehicle description that we can broadcast,” the Sheriff says.

“Or we can activate the tag,” there’d been brief introductions while they waited for Jenna and the Sheriff to come back and for Colby to manage to cry himself almost out, so she knows one of them is Patrick and one of them is Oliver. Though she’s not sure which is which and they’re both of them stationed in front of the laptops set up on the jewelry counters, so it doesn’t probably matter.

“Do _not_ tell me you tagged my brother, my baby brother that has been through hell and back…” Ryder snaps.

“Of course we didn’t,” David says soothingly, “It’s a highly experimental, unstable compound we wouldn’t…”

“Only _one_ of the rats blew up,” Patrick or Oliver mutters, “It was mostly a success.”

“One of the rats _blew up_,” Ryder says snidely. “That’s still screams not stable enough to try on a human subject.”

“We tagged your dad,” David says, Ryder’s mouth snaps shut, and his mom starts laughing.

“Is there a way to _make_ it blow him up? I would pay good fucking money to watch Jesse blow up.”

********************************

Alex is calm, he has his hands clasped together in his lap and he’s staring straight forward.

Michael is safe, Colby is safe, his brothers are safe… _everyone_ is safe.

“Where are we going?” he asks.

“It’s close,” the man had introduced himself as Noah, Alex remembers him from the first prison that he was in. He’d been across the aisle, two cells down. He’d disappeared months after Alex had Colby, they’d moved them out of that first prison and only half of them had ended up together at the next location.

Honestly Alex had figured that the other half had been murdered, strapped down on some operating table and opened up for the purpose of science.

“You know he’s going to kill us,” Alex says. Noah makes a noise that sounds like disagreement.

“He just wants to talk,” he says and Alex doesn’t snort or roll his eyes, because there is no way that Noah actually believes that.

They’ve been driving for just about an hour, they know he’s missing now. Colby is probably panicked and crying and Michael is probably frantic, his _brothers_ are likely going out of their minds.

Noah turns off into the parking lot of an abandoned building, at one time it might have been a gas station, it’s definitely not functional.

“Please don’t try and run,” Noah says when he puts the little car in park. He looks at him and he’s got wide beseeching eyes.

“Where would I even go,” Alex says as he opens the door, when he steps out, he scans the horizon and there’s nothing. No oncoming traffic, no sounds except wind whistling through the broken-out windows.

Noah leads the way around the back side of the building and his dad is sitting there on a half rotted out picnic table, he looks like he’s had a rough couple of days.

Alex doesn’t have any amount of sympathy for him.

Doesn’t really feel _anything_ for this man that he used to call dad and wanted to so badly to make proud at one time.

He doesn’t know if he can pinpoint the exact time when he stopped wanting to make him proud and just wanted to be free of him. He’s pretty sure it was about the time he realized there was a good possibility that he was gay.

“So, you’re not a complete failure after all,” Jesse says to Noah as he pushes himself to his feet, he looks slightly unsteady on them.

Alex doesn’t move any closer, stops a fair distance away as Noah walks over to stand next to Jesse, the expression on his face is cowed.

“Will you take it off now?” Noah asks, he pulls at the collar of his t-shirt and that’s when Alex notices the thin band of metal around Noah’s neck.

“When it’s done,” Jesse says and Alex clenches his hands into fists.

“Can’t be bothered to murder me yourself?” Alex asks and Jesse just looks at him, hard dark eyes filled with hate and disgust and laughs, it sends a chill down Alex’s spine and then he follows Jesse’s eyes.

In the middle of the expanse between them is a gun, laying on the ground, looking completely innocuous.

“Noah,” Jesse waves a hand and Noah steps forward, giving Alex enough notice of what he’s going to do that Alex moves first.

Pushing out fiercely with everything he has and _shoving_ Noah backwards, he stumbles back into Jesse before he recovers and pushes out himself, Alex has already pulled the gun to him though.

Holding it tight in his hands, aimed at the ground.

Alex growls and pushes harder, every bit of anger he feels at the time he lost, every ounce of hatred he feels for the man he once called dad.

Noah only staggers backwards, but he wasn’t the one Alex was aiming at, it’s with only the briefest of satisfaction that he watches as his dad _flies_ back, dropped into the smashed remains of what Alex thinks was once a picnic table.

Noah leans forward, hands pressed to his knees as he gasps for air, Alex clenches his hands around the gun and tries to remember how to breathe.

They stand there staring at each other, each waiting for the other to make the next move.

Alex is exhausted, drained down to his bones, playing games with Colby in a cell are the only times besides the first time that Alex had even used those powers that he’d gained from Colby healing him. He’s had maybe five years’ worth of time to get used to his, Noah has had a lifetime of knowing what he can do and honing those abilities.

If it comes down to it, he’s not going to be able to outlast him, Alex knows this and from the look in Noah’s eyes he knows this as well.

At least Colby is safe with Michael, he’s holding onto that, his son and Michael are both safe and out of harms way. He just has to get himself out of harms way and back to them in as much of one piece as he can manage.

From the look in Jesse’s eyes when he’s back on his feet, as well as the gun that is now in _his_ hand he knows that his dad is going to try and make that an impossible feat.

“Noah,” Jesse growls and Alex lets out a breath, braces himself for Noah to try pushing at him again and instead feels the tickle of someone trying to gain access to his mind.

He knows how to block it out. You only lose ten hours playing a game with your kid one time before you figure out how to keep it from happening again.

And he won’t give Noah any entrance to his mind so that he can compel him to lift the gun heavy in his hand and point it at his own head.

It won’t end like this.

“No,” Alex mutters and he keeps his mind a blank wall. He has to focus all his energy on that so he misses when Noah pushes again, slams back hard against the building and crumples, dazed and likely bleeding to the ground.

He waits for Noah to finish, for him to slam the building on top of him, to crush him beneath the weight of something else.

It doesn’t come and he opens his eyes, manages to get himself to his knees. He can feel something wet on his face and when he raises shaking hands to his head, he can see that it’s blood.

“Finish it, Noah,” Jesse demands, and he moves the gun so it’s no longer pointed at Alex but instead pointed at Noah. Noah who is very obviously straining and pushing and nothing is happening.

“I can’t,” Noah cries and there’s such despair in his voice.

“You always seem to forget that he’s not alone any longer,” a smooth voice precedes the man walking into the clearing. It’s been long years, too _many_ years but Alex remembers what Tanner sounds like.

The last time he’d seen him they’d just finished shaving all their heads and changing out their uniforms in preparation for moving them. It’s been long enough that Tanner’s hair has grown back.

“Mr. Tanner,” Alex manages, and he tries to come back to his feet, but Tanner waves a hand at him, a silent message to stay down.

“Put the gun down, dad,” Flint comes around the other side of the building, Alex doesn’t know which one of them to focus on, Tanner is here, and Flint is here, he wants to sob in relief but it’s not over yet.

There’s still his dad with a gun looking infuriated.

There’s still Noah who is suddenly motionless.

“Flint,” Jesse says, his voice is hard and cold, he sounds exactly like that he had when he’d been addressing Alex.

“Just put it down,” Flint says, “It’s over, just…”

“It was you,” Jesse says, gun moving from where it had been pointed at Tanner to being fixed on Flint’s chest. “You’re the reason that Ryder started asking questions and Hunter started dodging phone calls and your _mother_ started sending me a hundred texts a day demanding to know where I was keeping him.”

“What did you expect?” Flint snarls. “You brought me there and if it had just been them _maybe_ I could have looked the other way and explained it off, but you _brought_ me there and the first person I saw was my little brother and a nephew I didn’t even know _fucking_ existed locked up like animals. What did you expect me to do, dad?”

“Your job,” Jesse growls. “I expected you to come in and be a soldier like I trained you to be.”

Flint laughs bitterly.

“Do you even remember what you said to me when you and mom brought Alex home? I certainly didn’t want _another_ brother, Hunter and I had been begging for a little sister but you brought home Alex and he was a tiny little thing and you sat me down on the couch and you told me, he’s your baby brother, he can’t protect himself right now, so I’m counting on you and Hunter to protect him until he can.”

Jesse narrows his eyes at Flint.

“That’s all we’ve been doing, dad. Exactly what you’ve told us to do since we were kids, we were kind of shitty at it because if we’d actually been paying attention and being his big brothers, he wouldn’t have been there for ten years, Colby wouldn’t have been born into that.”

“He’s an abomination,” Jesse says, his arm twitches and the muscles in his face spasm suddenly and the gun in his hand is suddenly not pointed at any of them but instead is pressed directly against his own temple.

Alex just watches and he’s not sure if it’s Noah whose attention is solely fixated on Jesse or Tanner whose eyes haven’t left him once.

Whoever it is doesn’t get a chance to compel Jesse to pull the trigger of the gun, instead his eyes roll back in his head and he just drops to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Flint moves first, taking custody of the gun before Noah can get his hands on it.

Alex just stares at the still mass that is his dad, he’s not moving and Alex can’t seem to look away. Not even when Tanner is right in front of him, blocking his view, not touching him.

“Is he dead?” he asks and Tanner glances over his shoulder at where Flint is crouched next to Jesse, hand wrapped around his wrist. He shakes his head.

Alex doesn’t know why he’s relieved, it would be a lot easier if Jesse were dead, it’d likely be a lot messier to explain as well so maybe it’s for the best that he’s not.

“Dad,” he hears and he barely catches a glimpse of Colby before his son is flinging himself against him, arms wrapped tight around his neck and Alex gets pushed back onto his butt as he clings to Colby in return.

Michael is slower in coming but not by much, Tanner moves aside as Michael wraps them both in his arms pressing his lips against Alex’s cheek.

“Thank god, thank god, thank god,” he’s murmuring over and over again, Alex lets out a shuddering breath and looks at him, touches the side of Michael’s face and just stares at him.

There’s a lot of movement around them, but no one is interrupting, that might be Tanner standing with his arms crossed over his chest like he’s protecting them, keeping everyone away with the stern look on his face.

He should get up and talk to Ryder or David, or Hunter or mom, even Flint who is likely explaining what happened with waving hands in a low tone that Alex can’t hear.

Oliver has Noah’s wrists clamped together with zip ties and Noah looks scared but resigned even as Patrick is pulling his t-shirt to the side to get a look at whatever Jesse was using to attempt to control him.

The Sheriff is standing to one side with Max and a young blond woman also in a deputy’s uniform on either side of her. She seems content for the moment to let David and Ryder take control and sort out what happened.

Alex kind of doesn’t blame her.

“Never again,” Michael mutters, he’s dragging his fingers through Alex’s hair, he winces and Michael stops, eyes wide.

“I’m okay,” Alex says and Michael just raises an eyebrow at him. He’s got blood on him and he’s dusty and hurting, and _definitely_ not looking his best. “I am. You’re here, Colby’s here, my dad’s, I don’t know had a stroke or something,” he kisses the corner of Michael’s mouth and just rests there. Holds tight to Colby, lets Michael hold them tight, lets everyone else deal with the things that need to be dealt with.

********************************


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the world is a crazy place and we're living in scary and crazy times. I'm currently in quarantine and my state is shut down. I'm one of the lucky ones that continue to work from home for the time being and I'm extremely grateful for that. I hope everyone stays safe.
> 
> I made the difficult decision to _not_ watch the show live for now, I've been dipping into the tags on Tumblr and I'm confident that I made the correct decision for myself for right now.

**Missing 19/?**  


Despite his repeated assurances that he’s fine, no hospital is needed, Alex is escorted into Roswell General with way too many people looking twitchy at anyone even _looking_ at him.

He’s tired, he hurts, and he’d really like to just go home or back to Max’s home and take a hot shower and put something comfortable on.

Instead he’s sat down on an exam bed with Hunter and Ryder at the door, Colby is half in his lap and Michael is standing right by him, arms wrapped tightly around the both of them.

“I don’t really need a hospital,” Alex murmurs into Colby’s hair and Michael makes a noise that isn’t words but is definitely a firm disagreement.

Flint comes in followed closely by Kyle and Alex is definitely taken aback by the white coat and scrubs that proclaim that Kyle is supposed to be here. Then he remembers that back when they’d first got out of the cells at the prison that Kyle had been one those checking them over.

“You’re a doctor,” he says and he blinks at his childhood best friend who had never once, in the entire time they were growing up, ever expressed any interest in medicine.

“Oh, yeah,” Kyle looks down at himself like he’d forgotten what he was wearing and then back at Alex. There’s stark relief in his eyes as he looks at him and Alex doesn’t really know what to do with the visible proof that people were worried about him so he hides his face in Colby’s hair.

Michael presses a kiss to his temple.

Kyle doesn’t make Colby move while he has Alex tilt his head forward and back and presses on the sore spot on the back of his head and the giant bruise that is now his entire back.

“I’ll just clean up some of the lacerations,” Kyle says softly, “none of them are deep enough to need stitches.”

Alex just nods, lays his cheek against the top of Colby’s head. Doesn’t listen to Kyle and Michael talking quietly. Just closes his eyes and breathes.

********************************

Ryder has left Hunter back at the house with Max to keep an eye on Alex, Michael and Colby, he makes his first stop the station where Sheriff Valenti has the man they only know as Noah handcuffed to a table.

“How’s Alex?” the Sheriff asks when he taps on the open door to alert them to his presence. They’re huddled around her desk with their heads bent together but he doesn’t appear to have interrupted anything.

“He’s okay, Kyle checked him out, not a clean bill of health but nothing that would predicate the necessity of keeping him for observation or anything,” Ryder steps inside the office. “Which is good because my dad is there, and I don’t really want Alex within a five-mile radius of him right at the moment.”

“I was expecting from the way you all were talking that his head would explode or something, do we know what happened yet?”

Ryder shakes his head, though he’s also been keeping all eyes on Alex so he’s gratified that David also shakes his head because that means he hasn’t actually missed anything.

“Oliver and Patrick are looking into a few things, but we don’t think the tag had anything to do with him collapsing,” David says.

“What about the other guy? The one that took Alex from the store, he said anything yet?” Ryder asks.

“Just that he didn’t want to hurt him, that he was only doing what Jesse had ordered him to do, then he kept begging that guy Flint brought with him, Tanner, for forgiveness. So we kicked the both of them out of the viewing room because how he even knew Tanner was in there is beyond me,” the Sheriff says, David nods but also raises an eyebrow at him.

“I’m going to go talk to Flint for a bit, figure out what we’re going to do about dad…” he scratches his head and sighs, “I guess we’ll have to probably post guards or something and figure out how to keep mom out of his hospital room so we don’t end up having to indict her for murder.”

“She’s a lot more violent then I remember her being,” the Sheriff muses and Ryder shrugs, because the mom that the outside world saw was not the one that he remembers growing up and Alex’s sarcastic wit had definitely not come from Jesse.

He leaves them discussing whatever they were discussing and goes to hunt down Flint. He’s not hard to find, sitting at a small break area with an older man opposite him.

“We need to talk about how we keep mom from being brought up on murder charges,” he says as he swings a chair over the table and sits down.

“Well someone is going to probably need to stay with her until we have dad in custody somewhere again,” Flint says.

Ryder scowls because he left Hunter with Alex, and Flint has this Tanner person to deal with so it’s likely going to be Ryder trying to rein mom in when he’d really rather just turn his back and let her deal with it.

“Letting her murder him is not an option,” Flint says, like he can _tell_ exactly the direction Ryder’s thoughts have gone.

“I think it would be an ideal solution to most of our problems,” Tanner mutters and Ryder looks at him, Flint is just shaking his head.

It hits him suddenly that this Tanner is likely the Mr. Tanner that Colby and Alex were talking about back at the safehouse.

“You’re Mr. Tanner,” he says and he makes a face because he hadn’t actually meant to say that out loud. “Alex and Colby’s Mr. Tanner, they mentioned you.”

“He was in the group that I couldn’t stop them from moving,” Flint says, “the one that Alex and Colby were supposed to be in.”

“I’d like to see them at some point, and Flint has assured me that Mara at least will be coming here and I know that she’ll want to see them, to prove that they’re well and safe,” Tanner’s voice is calm and cultured, a tiny hint of an accent that Ryder can’t place in his voice.

He’s trying not to think about the fact that if Tanner was in that prison that means he’s not human, or that Jesse Manes and whoever he worked with _thought_ that he, they weren’t human. Because that means that all the alien nonsense that he’s dismissed as crazy talk and insanity since he was a child growing up in Roswell was in fact all based in truth.

“It’s been weeks and you haven’t come to grips with it yet?” Flint asks, it’s the sarcastic tone in his voice that has Ryder scowling at him not the words.

“It took you how many months before you actually believed it yourself?” Tanner asks with amusement.

“You were there with Alex before he had Colby,” Ryder says.

“He appeared one morning in the cell across from Mara, we could tell at once that he wasn’t one of us so it was something of a surprise to have him suddenly be there. Mara felt some kinship with him though she could never explain how or why, at least not until Colby was born. Then it became _readily_ apparent that some of us had evaded discovery, that Colby’s other father was one of us or born from one of us, that the feeling of kinship that caused Mara to claim Alex and Colby as part of her line is because that other is either Mara’s son or grandson or maybe even great grandson though I don’t think we’ve been here long enough for that to be the case,” Tanner’s fingers fiddle idly with the edge of his cup as his voice fades.

“Michael,” Ryder says when Tanner has finished speaking and the silence between the three of them settles heavily on the table.

“Michael?” Tanner says softly, his eyes lift to meet his.

“Colby’s other dad, his name is Michael,” Ryder nods and Tanner laughs a little.

“Colby Michael,” he says and Ryder grins. “When they’re ready, we’d like to meet them.”

“I think they’d like that.”

********************************

Alex’s face is soft in sleep, Michael lays there on his side with Colby curled up next to him as they both watch him sleep.

“I could heal him,” Colby says plaintively, and he flexes the hand that he has splayed across Alex’s chest, Michael grips his fingers, not too tight, but just enough that Colby grumbles and relaxes.

Before, locked in their cell together, Colby would have likely already healed whatever injuries that Alex had been inflicted with while he was still unconscious. He doesn’t understand why Michael won’t let him do the same now.

“When he wakes up, we’ll ask him,” Michael reminds him, again, they’ve had many versions of this conversation since Ryder dropped them off at Max’s. Colby doesn’t understand why he just can’t make his dad not be in pain, Michael has given up on explaining consent and how Alex should be the one saying yes or no to it and instead just leaving it with when dad wakes up, we’ll let him decide.

There’s a soft tap at the door and Max peaks his head in, he’s changed out of his uniform and is now in a t-shirt and jeans.

“Made food if you’re hungry,” he says, leaning against the open door. “Just soup and sandwiches, figured we keep it light still.”

“Maybe when Alex wakes up,” Michael says softly, Colby isn’t going to leave the room unless Alex leaves it with them. Michael can completely understand him, they went one aisle over and Alex vanished into thin air.

“I’m awake,” Alex mumbles, his eyes open just a crack and he look at them, Michael hazards a quick glance at the door where Max is still leaning, watching them with a half-smile on his face.

“I would have already healed you but Papa said I had to wait until you woke up and ask if it was okay,” Colby says, he sits up, settling with his knees pressed to Alex’s side and his hands on Alex’s chest. The tone of his voice indicates that he’s still not sure why he had to wait and that he really doesn’t like it.

Michael doesn’t look over at where Max is still watching them, he hasn’t told Max or Isobel that Alex knows. That Colby has demonstrated that he has their healing and telekinesis gifts, which means there’s a better then likely chance that he has the telepathy as well.

That Colby healing Alex has at the very least given Alex the ability to access at the very least the telekinesis.

“I’m okay,” Alex says, he lays a hand across Colby’s, when he sits up and pulls Colby into a loose hug he can’t manage to hide his wince of pain and Michael almost tells Colby to go ahead and do it. He lays his head against the top of Colby’s, ruffling his hair and looking at Michael with a little smile on his lips.

“You said soup and sandwiches?” Alex asks as he presses a kiss to Colby’s forehead.

“Just chicken noodle from a can, didn’t really have all the stuff to make the homemade version,” Max says, he stands up straight as Alex climbs off the bed, waiting until Colby crawls across it, when he’s on his feet he takes Alex’s hand, they wait for Michael to crawl off the bed and Max leads them into the kitchen.

********************************

Its dark out he notices, Alex wonders why Max isn’t sleeping, that Colby and Michael aren’t sleeping. Hunter is sitting at the kitchen table, empty beer bottle on the table as well as an empty bowl. Alex sits in the chair near him and is only a little surprised that Colby leans into him instead of climbing into his lap.

Alex runs his hand across the top of Colby’s head and presses a kiss there. Max puts bowls in front of him and Colby, turning to grab another for Michael and then one for himself. Michael sets bottles of water in front of each of them, even Hunter who raises an eyebrow and looks back and forth between his empty beer bottle and the water.

“Where’s everyone else?” he asks, he dips his spoon into the bowl watching out of the corner of his eye as Colby does the same.

“Ryder and Flint are at the Sheriff’s figuring out what to do about your kidnapper, mom is probably at the hospital trying to figure out how to get past Ryder’s boys and into dad’s room.”

“Mom wouldn’t _really_ try to kill him? Would she?” Alex wonders, she’d threatened it just about every day before she finally left him, but he’d thought it was just talk. The sort of thing that you say when you’re pissed off and have no other outlet to express it.

“I think you underestimate how pissed off mom is with him right now, murder is the least of our problems if she manages to get in to see him.”

********************************


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter as we get ready to move into the next section.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who reads and leaves feedback each week, I appreciate each and every one of you!

**Missing 20/?**  


Ryder watches Noah sit at the table, his cuffed hands are held together in front of him and he stares straight ahead.

“He still not saying anything useful?” he asks and he doesn’t need to look to see David shaking his head.

“Not a word.”

Ryder lets out an annoyed breath.

“Weird thing though, and the Sheriff is not privy to this information,” David says softly, Ryder looks over at him with what he’s hoping are questioning eyes and not just confused ones. “He mentioned Rosa Ortecho by name, multiple times.”

“Rosa?” Ryder asks numbly. “Like Liz’s sister Rosa?”

David raises an eyebrow at him, which fair, it was kind of a stupid statement.

“Anything in particular or…”

“He just muttered it a few times, no context for it,” David drags a hand through his hair, then settles it on Ryder’s shoulder and tugs him into a hug. The door is closed, Noah is staring at the wall, his dad is handcuffed to another hospital bed; Ryder lets himself relax into it.

Wrapping his arms around David and holding him tight.

“We’re not putting him in a room with Rosa,” Ryder mutters into his shoulder.

“Absolutely not,” David says, “I do have Oliver going through the data we got from the prison though, because Tanner said he was there with them at one point, arriving shortly after Alex did. He disappeared during one of their moves, but Tanner wasn’t sure which one or even how long he was with them, they were distracted with Alex and then Alex and Colby.”

“You think he did something to Rosa? To those other girls and dad, what, caught him and locked him up?”

“You know that a normal jail cell wasn’t going to hold him,” David says, he strokes a hand down the back of Ryder’s neck, like he can feel the tension building in him and trying to gentle him out of a fit of temper.

Ryder would hate that someone knows him well enough to know how to do that, but he also can admit that he likes the benefits of being known as well.

********************************

Colby is still curled up next to him asleep when Alex wakes, the room is dark and the door is mostly shut so as to block out whatever noise happening in the rest of the house.

He shifts to roll over onto his back and has to let out a long even breath and swallow deeply through the pain.

His back is one giant tender area, probably going to be riddled with bruises from hitting the building. His head isn’t pounding which surprises him some; but he also can feel the tenderness that means that eventually it’s going to be.

“I can heal you now?” Colby says and he looks over at where Colby is blinking solemnly at him. “Papa told me you had to say yes before I could, then you went to sleep again after we ate so I couldn’t ask again.”

“I’m okay,” Alex says softly, he raises an arm and Colby squirms closer so he can curl up against his side. Alex wraps his arms around him, kisses the top of his head.

“Was it a bad thing? Me healing you? Was I not supposed to?” Colby asks, he sounds fearful, like he did something wrong.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Alex assures him, he keeps his voice gentle and calm, his arms tight around Colby keeping him close.

“Papa said…” Colby starts and Alex shakes his head, presses his hand against the back of Colby’s head until he looks up at him. His lips are trembling, and his eyes are sad.

Alex knows that this isn’t about his injuries now, it’s about his injuries _then_ the ones that Miss Mara and Mr. Tanner talked Colby through healing until they were no longer able to talk to each other. By then Colby didn’t need the prompting, he knew what to do to heal Alex when he was returned to their cell.

Colby has taken Michael’s talk of asking for permission to heal Alex _now_ and pushed it all the way back to the very _first_ time when Alex wasn’t even conscious to offer a thought and has now determined that if he’s not supposed to heal Alex now without asking, then he shouldn’t have been doing it back then.

But back then…

“Papa wasn’t there, so he doesn’t know, okay? You didn’t do anything wrong, you did exactly what you needed to, what _I_ needed you to do in order for me to be healthy and strong enough so I could keep fighting for us, okay?” he asks and Colby nods.

“You are the absolute _best_ thing that has ever happened to me, I love you so much,” he says.

“I love you too, dad,” Colby beams at him, giggling when Alex presses noisy kisses against his forehead and cheeks, holding him tightly and ignoring the ache in his back that are trying to remind him that he got thrown against a building just barely 24 hours earlier.

“Now where did papa go? Do you know?” he asks, smoothing Colby’s hair down.

“He said something about going to argue with Uncle Max,” Colby says with a shrug, he sits up on his knees as Alex sits up, hiding the wince so they don’t need to go through the healing talk again.

He’ll wear these bruises and aches with pride until they fade; he stood up to his father and managed to stay on top.

He feels old when he gets to his feet, he twists a bit, trying to stretch out his back before he lets Colby lead him through the house. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else around when they get to the kitchen, though he can hear the quiet rumble of voices from what he hadn’t realized was a little deck area on the other side of the kitchen wall.

It’s just Michael and Max out there when he peeks out, both their heads turning to look at him and Colby by his side when he opens the door.

“Where is everyone?” he asks, because it’s just Michael and Max out there and he would have thought at least one of his brothers would be camped out on the sofa or directly across from the door to Michael’s room.

“Ryder is down with the Sheriff still. Flint had to go meet some people and Hunter got a phone call that had him muttering about your mom as he went, I think he, they might trust us enough to look out for you for the likely to be very short time they’ll all not be here,” Max says, he’s got a coffee cup resting against his thigh and looks amused by the overprotectiveness on display by Alex’s family.

“Your mom really wants to see your dad resting six feet under,” Michael says he tilts his head to the empty chair on his left. “Can’t say I really blame her and it’s probably a good thing that I’m not one of the ones focused on deterring her from seeing that through.”

“They had a lot of fights when I was a kid,” Alex says as he settles into the chair, Colby sits on the ground at his feet, resting his head against Alex’s knee. “I don’t remember her being really violent,” he murmurs, his dad had been the violent one. He had no qualms about raising a hand to any one of them if he felt they’d stepped out of whatever line he wanted them toeing.

He remembers long dark sleeves during the spring and summer months that had been more about hiding bruises then any emo aesthetic he’d been trying for.

“I was talking to Max about the other thing,” Michael says suddenly after they sit there in silence long enough that Alex has leaned his head back, slouching in the chair and closing his eyes. His eyes snap open and Colby goes stiff at the way his body goes suddenly stiff.

He lays his faintly trembling hand on Colby’s head, brushing his fingers through his hair and when he finally composes himself enough, he looks over to see Michael watching them with calm, warm eyes. Sees Max watching them with bright interest but not fear or anger and he forces himself to relax.

This is Michael. And Max, probably Isobel should be here for this as well, but Alex knows if they wait for her that the house will fill up with people who both do and don’t know.

“Colby,” Alex says softly, and Colby looks at him with wide eyes and Alex smiles at him. “Do you have your rocks with you?”

Colby beams, shifting onto his knees so he can take a bag out of his pocket, “Uncle Ryder got me a bag to put them in so I could keep them safe,” he says as he loosens the drawstring and spills the rocks onto the ground. “Are we going to play?” he asks hopefully.

“Why don’t you set it up and we’ll show Uncle Max what we can do and then maybe he’ll play with you after,” Alex says and Colby beams at him as he sets the stones in their places. When Alex looks over Max looks confused but still gets up from his chair and settles awkwardly across from them.

“You could have just…” Colby says as he twitches his fingers and his first stone shifts into place, the look of baffled astonishment on Max’s face makes Alex want to laugh. He doesn’t, just watches as Max studies the rocks in front of him, obviously trying to figure out what type of game they’re playing without wanting to ask.

“I don’t have that power,” he says quietly as he reaches out to drop a rock randomly on the ground near Colby’s.

“They’re going to kick your a… butt,” Michael comments, Alex would remark on that, but he’s a little taken aback by Max’s statement.

“You don’t?” he asks and he can hear the confusion in his own voice.

“Dad it’s your turn,” Colby nudges his knee impatiently, Alex studies the pieces laid out and nudges the one that Colby is pointed at into place. Max draws in a sharp breath and when he looks up Max is looking at him with a wondering expression.

“Michael said, but…” Max says softly, uttering a short laugh. “No,” Max shakes his head, “How?”

“Apparently if you get hurt often enough and you get healed often enough…” Alex shrugs, he runs his fingers through Colby’s hair and smiles down at him.

“I’ve got healing, Michael’s got the telekinesis, Is has the telepathy,” Max says, “I don’t think we ever even thought that…”

“Something to explore when we don’t have other things to worry about,” Michael says.

Alex makes a face, those other things are probably all pointedly referencing his family, he’s sure of that.

********************************


	21. Chapter 21

**Missing 21/?**

Michael takes absolute glee in watching Colby, with Alex’s clear help, trounce Max three games in a row. Max, he can tell, is tickled with watching Colby moves the pieces with his mind, watching _Alex_ shift some with his.

They’re just starting the fourth game when Michael hears the sound of a vehicle pulling into Max’s driveway.

“Go head and put them away now,” Alex says quietly, and Colby looks up at him with sad eyes, “You can start it over again later.”

“Don’t know if my ego can take a fourth loss,” Max says as he climbs to his feet.

“Your ego will be fine,” Michael says as he gets to his feet as well. Alex waits for Colby to finish slowly putting his stones away and stands when Colby scrambles to his feet. He tucks the little drawstring bag into a pocket and leans into Alex’s side.

“Can’t imagine who it could be,” Max is muttering as they follow him back through the house. “Everyone we know is either here, at the Sheriff’s or at the hospital.”

Alex looks at him and Michael makes a gesture that Alex takes as he meant for him to, holding Colby next to him and shielding him from view of the open door.

“It’s your brother and that other guy,” Max says when he opens the door, Michael can see Flint climbing out of the drivers’ side, the older man that had been with him when they found Alex climbing out of the back.

It’s the older woman that draws his eyes, her face so familiar though he can place a name to it, just a feeling.

She has silver white hair that is cut short around her face and she moves slowly.

“That’s Miss Mara, dad that’s Miss Mara,” Colby says and the sheer joy in his voice is probably written into every line of his face.

Colby darts past Max, Alex following along behind him because he’s still got a tight grip on Colby’s hand.

“Miss Mara, Mr. Tanner,” he’s saying over and over again as he drags Alex behind him. Though Alex doesn’t seem to be stopping him, if anything he lets go of Colby’s hand so he can fling himself at Miss Mara.

“They’re not human,” Max says softly and Michael nods. It’s the same feeling he got from the others at the prison where they had initially found Alex and Colby, at the time he’d been so wrapped up in Alex and Colby that he hadn’t even really registered the fact that the four that had still been held with them were not human.

Miss Mara is on her knees, unmindful of the dust and dirt and stones that are probably digging into her knees and she hugs Colby fiercely. She’s looking at Alex with such _love_ in her eyes, though she seems to know enough of about his mind state to not try and touch him.

She settles for cupping Colby’s face in her hands, and pressing kisses to his cheeks that cause him to giggle. Mr. Tanner is running his hand over Colby’s hair with a look of awe and raw _hope_ in his eyes.

Michael knows exactly when they catch sight of him and Max, and he knows through whatever else is occurring, these two _know_ him, know _them_.

“Tanner,” she says softly, her hands still gentle on Colby’s face.

“I see them as well,” he says with a nod. “Not a hallucination.”

Colby notices that he doesn’t have their undivided attention any longer and looks over his shoulder at where Michael and Max have stopped halfway between the house and they’re still near the car.

“That’s papa and Uncle Max,” he says with a wide happy grin, Miss Mara presses a soft kiss to the side of his face before coming to her feet. She doesn’t brush the dust off her knees, just folds her hands together in front of her.

Michael _knows_ her, there is something twinging deep in his bones that _knows_ her as _family_.

As…

“Mom…” he says softly, barely a whisper if he’s being honest though he knows Alex heard him from the way he looks back and forth between Michael and Miss Mara with his hands on Colby’s shoulders, knows Max did from the way his entire body goes suddenly still.

Michael has a flash of a memory, of a younger woman with long smooth honey blond hair and a brilliant smile.

The same smile is on this older version of his _moms_ face.

She steps closer, slowly, there are tears filling her eyes that don’t fall and her hands when she lifts them to touch gentle fingers to his face are shaking.

She sobs, hands cupping his face and he doesn’t know what to do so he looks over at Alex who has an expression on his face that can only be called knowing, like he’d had a thought, an idea that has now become reality.

“Mara,” Tanner says quietly. He’s closer then he was, though he’s not touching them.

“He’s my son, Tanner,” she says, her cheeks are wet with the tears that are now falling.

“Yes, I can see,” Tanner says dryly, he looks him over and Michael feels himself straightening in response and is kind of annoyed by the reaction since _this_ guy, he doesn’t know. “He definitely got his father’s hair,” he looks back towards the car at where Alex and Flint are standing shoulder to shoulder, with Colby right in front of Alex. “But I think we already knew that was going to be the case.”

Mara smooths her hands down either side of his head, he thinks she’s trying to tame the curls which he could tell her was a futile effort.

“He already had his father’s hair,” she says, and she looks over at Max with a soft expression. “And you look so much like your father that I would know you anywhere, there should be…”

“Isobel is in town,” Max says and there’s such a soft look in on his face when Michael glances over at him. “I’m Max,” he offers, he jerks his head in Michael’s direction, “and he’s…”

“Michael,” Mara breathes, “yes, when we were still allowed to speak to one another Alex would tell Colby stories about his papa, and we listened, because it was proof that some of us had survived and managed to escape detection.”

********************************

Isobel thinks she’ll be glad once this is all over, when everyone can settle back into their own places and Michael and Alex can settle into their new home that is five minutes from hers instead of thirty minutes outside of town like Max insists on living.

He likes the privacy it affords him he’d insisted when he’d looked at the house the first time and dragged her and Michael along behind him because he doesn’t make big life decisions without them unless they involve Liz Ortecho.

Flints’ car is parked in the driveway, but he’s more considerate then Hunter who takes up all the available space left and Ryder who parks like everyone in the car is going to have to fling their doors open at the same time with guns drawn and he’d like to keep the unneeded property damage to a minimum.

She doesn’t knock when she gets to the front door, purse in hand, because she has a key but also because Liz’s car isn’t here so the likelihood of her walking in on her brother half naked is automatically cut to zero.

She slides her keys into the front pocket of her purse, sets it one of the hooks directly inside the front door that are there solely to hold her purse or the boys cowboy hats.

She follows the low hum of voices and finds them all in the living room, an older couple that she _sort_ of recognizes sitting on the couch next to Michael and Alex, Colby is cuddled up in the older woman’s lap and he looks as content as she’s ever seen in the short time that she’s actually physically known him.

“Hey,” Max grabs her arm and drags her back into the little alcove.

“Why didn’t you text and tell me you were having guests,” she hisses, she brushes her fingers through her hair, suddenly tense and nervous, though she’s not sure why. “I’m wearing _jeans_,” she mutters.

“They weren’t quite expected,” Max says as the older gentleman notices them and stands, him doing so draws everyone else’s attention and Isobel smooths her hair back, suddenly nervous for some unknown reason.

“This is Isobel,” Max says, he slings an arm around Isobel, tugs her close even as he draws her into the living room with the others. Alex’s brother is reclining back in one of the chairs trying to look bored even as she knows his entire focus is on the whole room.

“You have your mother’s eyes,” the older gentleman says, there’s such fondness in his voice that it takes a moment for his _actual_ words to sink in.

“This is Tanner and Mara,” Max says, Isobel looks between them. Tanner is not so familiar but Mara… Mara has Michael’s eyes. She looks over at Michael who is _glowing_ from whatever joy he’s currently feeling.

Michael has her eyes.

“Mara is Michael’s mom,” Alex says, he squeezes Michael’s hand that she hadn’t even noticed him holding. “Mara and Tanner were held with Colby and I. She never actually mentioned the fact that Michael was her son.”

Mara smiles, hugging Colby to her. “I couldn’t be sure if you were having my grandson or my great grandson and how do you even ask that? We could tell at the beginning that you didn’t have the first idea as to why we were locked up like you were, and we made a group decision to not mention anything while you were still pregnant because you were already being traumatized enough by your father and his soldiers, you didn’t need our truth to add to your stress.”

“There were a few of us that didn’t agree, but we all knew Mara was claiming you as part of her line due to the child so…” Tanner shrugs.

“Also, something not mentioned at the time,” Alex rolls his eyes.

********************************

“Why Rosa Ortecho?” Ryder asks, he’s got his hands linked together tightly in front of him, more to keep himself from strangling the man sitting across from him.

He kidnapped his brother, would probably have _killed_ him if his father had ordered him to.

Noah looks at him with dazed eyes, Ryder isn’t fooled, he knows that Noah is hyper aware of where Ryder is located, that David is on the other side of one-way glass probably trying to keep the Sheriff from coming _through_ the glass. Oliver should be guarding the door.

“Rosa?” Noah asks, there’s nothing in his voice that indicates knowledge of the girl.

“Rosa Ortecho, you’ve mentioned her a few times and I want to know if _you_ are the reason she’s been in a catatonic state for the last ten years.”

********************************


	22. Chapter 22

**Missing 22/?**  


Ryder already knows exactly which hospital room is housing his dad, it’s not any real surprise to find Hunter sitting outside it with arms crossed over his chest and an annoyed expression on his face as he glares at their mom who is sitting directly across from him with her eyes focused on the closed door.

“Do I even want to know?” Ryder asks.

“I just want to talk to him,” mom says and her voice is saccharine sweet as she smiles at him.

“And I’d kind of like to have one parent not in prison,” Hunter says, mom rolls her eyes at him.

“I wouldn’t hurt him,” she says brightly and if she hadn’t been threatening murder and mayhem since she rolled into town he might be able to believe her. “I just want to ask him why he thought locking our youngest son up in a literal _prison_ was a good idea, how he thought keeping him and my grandson there was okay and that I would just let it slide because he has _reasons_.”

“You know he’s going to just spout some crazy rhetoric about aliens,” Hunter mutters.

“He’s been muttering about aliens since he was a fucking teenager, if I didn’t know better, I’d think he’d been planning this all along and playing a long game setting up his insanity plea…”

Ryder lets out a breath, touches his hand to the door, his mom doesn’t know that Jesse’s crazy talk about aliens was his way of literally talking about his day. He doesn’t think mom would believe it even now, not with everything that Jesse has done and allowed to be done to Alex.

He pushes the door open and steps inside, letting it swing closed behind him before he steps closer to the bed.

They’re taking no chances this time, both of Jesse’s arms are restrained and he looks pale and old. Older even then he looked when he’d been on the ground bleeding from the nose after whatever had _actually_ dropped him.

Oliver insists that it wasn’t the tracker that caused it, that nothing they’ve gotten back off the tests they’ve run have indicated that anything unforeseen had happened due to the implanting of the tracker.

When David was allowing Oliver and Patrick to test the tracker, any time it malfunctioned it ceased working.

Even with Jesse currently contained in the hospital it’s still transmitting a faint, steady signal. Which means it's still working.

“Don’t you think this is on the side of overkill,” Jesse says, rattling the chains on the restraints keeping him secured to the bed.

“I don’t think so,” Ryder says, he keeps the chair he settles in a distance away, so he can watch both the window, the bed and the door. He’d feel better if he had support other then Hunter and mom, he can probably trust Hunter to watch his back, but he wouldn’t put it past mom to use whatever situation arises to try and get a shot at Jesse while everyone else is dealing with it.

“You know I’ve only done this to protect you boys,” Jesse says.

“Sure, dad,” Ryder nods, keeps his expression as neutral as he can manage. “I’d, you know, believe that… If you hadn’t spent over ten years trying to convince us Alex was nothing more then a runaway, all while you kept my brother and my nephew in a cage lined with explosives.”

“Son…” Jesse starts.

“I just can’t figure out if you locked him in there because he was gay, because of the gene or if you figured out somewhere in there just who Michael Guerin was. Either way what you did constitutes a hate crime in most states.”

Jesse stares at him with narrowed eyes, pale faced but for the tiny spots of red in his cheeks that indicate how infuriated he really is.

“But I’m not here to talk about Alex or Colby or any of that, I want to know what _you_ know about Noah.”

“Noah?”

“Noah, you know the guy you strapped into a shock collar,” Ryder says, he taps his fingers on the plastic arms of the chair. “I know he was involved in what happened to Rosa Ortecho, I want to know what he actually did.”

“You want,” Jesse rolls his eyes and looks away. “What about what I want?”

“You think I care what you want, do you think _any_ of us do?” Ryder snaps. “I want to see you shut away for longer then you tried to shut away Alex. I want to see you suffer the way you made us suffer, every single day not knowing what happened to him, but knowing there was no way in hell that Alex just ran away and didn’t contact a single solitary soul. I want to see you burn in hell.”

********************************

“Good morning, Miss Evans,” Nurse Avery stops her at the front desk. It’s unusual enough to have someone greet her that it automatically makes Isobel nervous, then irritated for feeling nervous.

“Good morning,” she says back, because her mother raised her to be polite even when she doesn’t necessarily want to be. She should already be in Rosa’s room.

“There’s some people in with Miss Ortecho right now,” Nurse Avery says and Isobel wants to growl, and grumble and vocally complain.

But the FBI was here not even six months ago for the yearly attempt at seeing if Rosa has come out of her catatonic state and can tell them what she remembers from the night Jasmine and Kate were murdered.

It doesn’t matter how many times they’re told they’ll be contacted once that occurs, they still show up, like clockwork, every year.

“They were just here not even…” Isobel says and Nurse Avery shakes her head.

“Not those FBI agents that can’t seem to understand that when we say we’ll contact them if there’s any change, that means that we’ll _call_ them if there’s any change. No this is one of the Manes boys, not the one that went missing that you brought by the other day but one of the other ones…” Nurse Avery glances around like someone will supply the name for her.

“There’s three others,” Isobel says.

“Ryder,” she snaps her fingers, “Ryder and the Sheriff and two other gentlemen.”

“They’re in there alone?” Isobel’s back goes straight, that means there’s no one in there looking out for Rosa’s best interests.

“The Sheriff is in there, she won’t let anything happen to Rosa.”

Isobel doesn’t snort her disagreement, because the Sheriff would very much like Rosa to just vanish into thin air. She doesn’t remember when they found out that Jim Valenti was Rosa’s dad and not Arturo, but the Sheriff hasn’t even been able to look at Rosa since they did.

The hallway is silent and the heels on her shoes click loudly as she stalks down it toward Rosa’s door. It’s already opening when she gets there, one of those men that came with Ryder coming out with the one that kidnapped Alex and caused absolute havoc.

She thinks his name is Noah, she doesn’t really care except there’s something about him that twinges familiarly with her. His hands are cuffed in front of him, she can tell even with the coat hanging between his hands to disguise the matter.

“Why would you bring him here,” she snaps even as she brushes past them into the room. Ryder is standing beside Rosa’s bed with his phone pressed to his ear and the Sheriff has one hand resting on her gun, the other touching the end of the bed.

“What did you think…” she hisses, or starts to hiss, she stops when she actually _sees_ the expression on the Sheriff’s pale face.

“Is…” her voice is soft and rusty with disuse and Isobel hadn’t even looked at Rosa when she came in so furious that they would allow that man in the room with her.

She’d recognize that voice anywhere, hears it in her dreams and in the nightmares when Rosa is talking at her with scorn lacing every word; demanding to know why Isobel hadn’t protected her.

“Rosa,” she breathes and Ryder hangs up his phone.

“I left a voicemail for you,” he says. “And Arturo and Liz are on their way.”

“I was driving,” she says in a daze, Rosa is looking at her, blinking slowly at her lips are forming a small smile and when Isobel reaches out a hand and wraps her fingers around Rosa’s, she squeezes back.

“How?” Isobel says, her cheeks are wet and when she reaches up to touch her face with the hand not clutching at Rosa’s she finds that they’re wet and at some point she’d started crying.

“We’ll, uh, give you a few minutes,” Ryder says, he touches Rosa’s arm briefly, but Rosa doesn’t look away Isobel. “You’ve only got a few minutes before the doctors show up though.”

Isobel doesn’t care about that, not really, not now that Rosa is looking at her with warm tired eyes and she’s _awake_.

********************************

Alex knows that Michael is both itching to get the three of them moved into the house that Isobel has found for them but also loathe to leave the safety of more than just him being responsible for Alex and Colby’s continued health and well-being.

“It’s lovely,” Mara says from behind him, when he turns she’s standing in the doorway to the living room, he can hear Colby’s laughter and the hum of Michael and Tanner’s voices from Colby’s room.

Flint is outside with Oliver checking the cameras for the millionth time.

“Isobel,” he says with a shrug and she smiles softly at him.

“Maybe the small details neither you or Michael strike me as the type to really enjoy pretty flowers, but the big ones? The house _feels_ like you and Michael and Colby,” Mara says, she steps closer, not too close, Alex could still back away if he needed the space.

“You knew?” he asks quietly and he can’t quite make himself meet her eyes, he remembers what he’d been like those first few panicked weeks where he wasn’t sure what the hell was going on and why his dad had _literally_locked him up. He’d been a mess and in shock, he still had Michael’s blood on the clothing his father had locked him up in and the bruises from where he’d been hit himself.

“Not at first,” Mara says, she takes another step, “I could tell, we all could that there was something different about you. And I felt the kinship, but it was so faint that I knew it didn’t mark you of my line, something close but not quite.”

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t protect him,” Alex says and he still can’t look at her. “I should have been…”

“You kept him alive, you kept him safe, you kept him _with you_.”

“I should have been able to give him up, let him go to a better home.”

“Is that what your father told you?” Mara asks, he feels her fingers gentle on his face as she forces him to look at her. He doesn’t have to say anything, she knows. “They would have killed him without even a single regret and I shudder to think where you would have ended up.”

“The military,” Alex says numbly, he bites his lip. “He was very vocal about his plans for me while we were waiting for the tests at the beginning. He was going to send me off to basic training to _straighten me out_.”

“I know things are different here, but I think you would have had to want to do that?” Mara asks.

“I don’t think I was being given an actual choice in the matter,” Alex says. “He would tell me in excruciating detail what he would do to Michael, to my friends if I tried to disobey him. I don’t think he even realizes now that Michael's not human, he just thinks he’s some punk kid that knocked up his son.”

“Dad?” Colby is standing in the doorway when Alex looks over and he’s not sure when they got there but he’s _sure_ that Michael heard at least the tail end of his and Mara’s conversation from the expression on his face.

It’s probably a good thing that his dad is still securely locked up in a hospital room under guards that even his mom hasn’t been able to get past because from the expression on Michael’s face they might be fighting about who actually get to put him down.

********************************


	23. Chapter 23

**Missing 23/25**  


Isobel gets kicked out of the room once the doctors descend, all wide eyes and _it’s a miracle_ grins.

They’re not going to be allowed back in anytime soon, so she grabs Ryder’s arm and drags him away.

“Tell me what’s going on,” she demands with a hiss and Ryder gives her a frankly horrendous innocent expression.

“Look, Isobel,” he starts and she shakes her head, she doesn’t stamp her foot even though she’d like to drive her heel right through his for not even giving her the courtesy of warning her that he was attempting something.

“Don’t, she wasn’t awake yesterday, nothing had changed yesterday. The only thing that changed today was that you brought that _thing_ into her room.”

Ryder studies her, eyes narrowed and there’s a split second where Isobel thinks he’s going to try and hand wave away what he’s done.

“He was responsible for it,” he says finally instead, he drags a hand through his hair and there’s an expression on his face that looks a lot like exhaustion.

“He’s the reason that Rosa spent ten years like that,” he waves a hand in the direction of where Rosa’s room would likely be. “I just made him undo it.”

“What did he do?” she asks and she’s scared to find out and she’s scared to not know. What if he did something _more_ wrong to Rosa, how would she even be able to figure it out.

“I don’t know,” Ryder shakes his head, “and I’m not just saying that, I really _don’t_ know what he did, I just know that the then Sheriff Valenti scooped him up before he finished doing it and handed him over to my dad,” he scratches at his ear and his mouth twists.

Isobel breathes, even breaths and she doesn’t go digging but only because she can tell that Ryder would tell her whatever he knew. Just dipping into his mind told her that, he’s not big on secrets, not even secrets that are in place to protect people.

“He was in a cell near Alex for a while,” Ryder mutters. “I’d feel bad for him but he also was responsible for Kate and Jasmine’s deaths albeit indirectly.”

“Why Rosa?” Isobel asks and she crosses her arms over her chest and stares at him.

“He was obsessed with her,” he says wryly. “He’s not overly forthcoming on the exact details, which is fine, for now. But he was obsessed with her, kind of made it sound like he was using you, your body to woo her when he realized she didn’t like boys but something went wrong, he couldn’t pull you in so he went himself and Rosa freaked out, Kate and Jasmine freaked out and I think he very badly improvised, then got caught trying to flee the scene.”

Isobel blinks at him, wraps her arms tighter around herself.

“That was the day of…” that was the day when Jesse attacked Michael and Alex and locked Alex away from them.

That was the day that Max and Michael had found her in her room staring at nothing, she doesn’t know if he was the one that caused her blackouts and why he wouldn’t have been able to get in if so. Though she’d always kind of thought she’d heard the remnants of screaming, of cries for help. In the nightmares she had for years after it had sounded like Michael, but she’s never been able to _hear_ him like that again or before.

There’s a tap on the door and Ryder pushes it open, one of the doctors that had shooed them out is standing there with a wide smile.

“You can go back in if you’d like,” he says looking between them. Isobel looks at Ryder who holds up an arm to take the door, signaling their conversation is over.

“Ms. Ortecho’s case manager is going to notify all interested parties,” the doctor is saying as he leads them back down the hallway to Rosa’s room, Isobel can see Liz standing outside it, clutching her fathers’ hand tightly. “But that notification won’t happen until tomorrow morning.”

“Why tomorrow?” Ryder asks and the doctor just smiles brightly at them, at Liz and Arturo waiting patiently at the closed door to Rosa’s room.

“Our case managers have so many patients they look after, they’re stretched very thin almost always, she’ll notify them when she gets some spare time, that’ll be some time tomorrow in the morning.”

********************************

“Rosa’s awake,” is how they’re greeted when they finally return to Max’s house, Flint has gone off with Mara and Tanner to wherever they’re staying the night which had left Michael the wrong side of grumpy.

Alex had _not_ pointed out that there were absolutely no more spare rooms or beds available for them to sleep on at Max’s, not unless someone didn’t sleep or they started sleeping in shifts.

He’s kind of glad when that Flint has gone off with them when they get to Max’s and he’s waiting in the doorway, hat in one hand and car keys in the other.

“You’re not even going to let us eat first?” Michael asks with a laugh.

“Rosa’s awake,” Max says and Michael’s steps falter as he stares at his brother, Alex looks back and forth between them, they’re having an entire conversation with their eyes.

“So I guess we’re going to the home?” Alex asks as Colby leans into his side, he cups Colby’s head in his hand, runs his thumb over his ear.

“You don’t have to…” Max starts and stops. “I mean…”

“Of course we’re _going_,” Alex says, rolling his eyes. “It’s Rosa, but it’s past dinner time, kind of would like to eat something.”

“Oh, yeah, Liz said that Arturo was having someone bring food, so there should be plenty to eat.”

“I’m pretty sure none of the food from the Crashdown is on Valenti’s meal plan schedule,” Michael says and Alex wonders at the sneering tone in his voice that it seems like it should be a direct contradiction to the way they interacted when they were still in the safehouse.

“I’m pretty sure that Kyle is going to be distracted by Rosa being awake, so I won’t say anything if you don’t,” Max grins, he slides his hat on and Michael rolls his eyes.

“I used to dream about Arturo’s fries,” Alex says wistfully, he smooths his hand over Colby’s head. “Do you think he’ll bring any shakes or is that asking too much.”

“I can text Liz and put in a special request if you want,” Max offers.

“I don’t want to put anyone out.”

“Trust me if Arturo knows it’s you asking he will probably go back and make it himself if he can’t get someone to drop it off,” Michael says as he opens the back passenger door of Max’s vehicle so Colby can hop up.

He stops Alex with a gentle hand on his waist and Alex doesn’t even look to see if Max is watching before he kisses him on the cheek. Presses his thumb against Michael’s lips as he smiles at him.

“Go sit up front with your brother so he doesn’t think we’re using him as a chauffeur,” he says and Michael makes a sound that is reminiscent of Colby in a huff and Alex grins.

He climbs in after Colby, who has not moved all the way across the seat and is instead sitting in the middle like he had when he was sandwiched between Michael and Alex before.

Alex glances over at where Colby has already drawn the lap belt and secured it as he fastens his own. Once Alex has the belt locked Colby wraps his hands around Alex’s as Alex tucks an arm over his shoulder and presses a kiss to the top of his head.

“I don’t remember any Rosa stories,” Colby says, he tilts his head back so he can look up at Alex.

“I’m sure I told you stories about Rosa,” Alex murmurs, he keeps his voice low so as to not interrupt the quiet conversation happening in the front of the car.

He probably shouldn’t have bothered,

“You guys are more then welcome to stay with me for as long as you need,” Max says, he raises his voice like he wants to make sure Alex knows this as well and Alex can’t help but smile. He sounds so put out that Michael wants to move them into the house.

Alex thinks it’ll be nice to have space, their _own_ space that is filled with just him and Michael and Colby and whichever of his brothers will be surfing the couch because he’s their little brother and can’t possibly be expected to take care of himself or Michael’s siblings who have their own homes in Roswell but will likely be permanent fixtures on their front step.

He’s not going to put it past Flint or Ryder to have Miss Mara and Mr. Tanner moved in somewhere down the street so that Michael has his newfound family close either that or they’ll buy a house so _they_ can be close.

He’s going to have to put his foot down soon, remind them that he’s not the seventeen year old boy that their father locked up, he’s an actual adult and is going to have to figure out how to stumble along on his own two feet by himself.

It’s probably not going to go well, they seem to all be reading through the same overprotective big brother handbook now. Alex would very much like to _burn_ the handbook.

********************************

Isobel is glowing, her smile is blinding in it’s brilliance and Michael just raises an eyebrow and doesn’t tell her to take it down several hundred notches because he’s pretty sure he looks like that whenever he looks over at where Alex and Colby are sitting at the little table with Arturo pushing food at them.

“They’re going to call the FBI tomorrow,” she says and both Michael and Max nod. “She doesn’t remember anything.”

“Nothing?” Max’s brow is furrowed when Michael glances over at him. “At all?”

“She remembers going to the caves with Jasmine and Kate,” she lets out a steady breath. “They were trying to bully her into getting them drugs,” there is the barest hint of a tone that Michael hasn’t heard in a while.

Isobel is pissed.

Michael looks over at the bed where Liz is perched on the edge with her sisters’ hands folded in hers, Maria is leaning into Liz’s shoulder and they’re all smiling and happy. There’s a lightness to them that Michael doesn’t think he’s seen in a while.

Maybe not since they were in school, when Alex was safe, and Rosa was safe. Alex going missing and Rosa ending up in a catatonic state, they all ended up wearing their age in the lines of their faces. He doesn’t think a single one of them has been _actually_ happy since.

********************************

Ryder doesn’t go back into Rosa’s room. He’s fairly confident there’s going to be a stone-faced nurse coming along shortly to try and kick people out of Rosa’s room.

He also doesn’t think anyone in that room is leaving until they’re damn good and ready.

“You okay?” David asks as he sidles up next to him, Ryder leans into his side, relaxes when David settles his arm around him, pulling him close.

“Long day,” he laughs. He thinks it’s an understatement, he doesn’t look over at David where he’s pretty sure there is a raised eyebrow looking directly at him.

“He any more forthcoming on what he actually did to her?” David asks, he kisses Ryder’s temple, strokes fingers down the side of his neck.

“It’s going to take me at least two hours and I might need to put together a PowerPoint presentation in order to make sense of his ramblings,” Ryder sighs loudly.

“You hate PowerPoint, maybe give Patrick your notes and he can put something together for you.”

********************************


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I haven't seen last weeks episode, as many of you know I made a decision to not watch Season 2 live. I have seen some images, etc as I dip my toes into the Alex Manes tag on Tumblr. 
> 
> I have no intention of stopping my writing of malex, hopefully the locking of the stories currently already written will be temporary.

**Missing 24/25**  


The FBI sends agents first thing in the morning, Isobel isn’t sure where they got detoured from but they look the wrong side of exhausted and after the first ten minutes of talking to Rosa don’t seem to have any desire to even be pressing her for any sort of information.

It makes her wonder _why_ they, or the agents that always seemed to appear each year like clockwork even wanted to be notified of Rosa waking. They don’t seem to want to ask her any of the relevant questions that Isobel had assumed would be asked.

Ryder had appointed himself their caretaker of choice and even he seems confused as to the agents exact purpose when they just leave after inquiring after Rosa’s health and asking her four questions that had _absolutely_ nothing to do with what put Rosa in the hospital in the first place.

“That was weird, right?” Isobel asks, “it wasn’t just me.”

Ryder’s already got his cellphone in hand, thumb rubbing over the screen like he wants to call someone but doesn’t know _who_ to call.

“No that was definitely weird,” Ryder agrees, his mouth twists and his eyes narrow at the now closed door that the agents had departed through. Isobel thinks that he’s debating internally whether he should be following them and figuring out what they’re really up to.

“Why are we worried about what they did or didn’t ask?” Rosa asks, she already sounds exhausted and she’s barely been awake for four hours, the two doctors she’d spoken to while Rosa was being checked out that morning both agree that it’s going to be a long road to complete recovery.

First step is physical therapy and actual therapy.

“Because for people that were worried about being notified when you woke up so they could ask their questions they didn’t ask any of the questions they’ve asked the rest of us over the years.”

“Maybe the doctors already told them I don’t really remember anything?” Rosa says, she holds out her hand, Isobel ignores the slight tremor from the exertion of her doing that and sits on the side of the bed, leaning into Rosa’s side and kissing her cheek.

“If I were them I wouldn’t be taking their word for anything, I’d at least want to ask the questions and hear you tell me you don’t remember in your own words,” Ryder says distractedly, he’s tapping at his phone.

Rosa raises an eyebrow and Isobel shrugs, she’s not actually sure what Ryder does either, though she’s thinking something in law enforcement, he’s got that look about him though she’s also never seen a badge.

“Are you guys okay?” he looks up, lips curving into a bit of smirk when he sees them curled together.

“Go stalk Alex and Michael for a while,” Isobel waves at him and Ryder rolls his eyes but leaves the room.

“Alex and Michael,” Rosa says softly. “I guess Michael would have been the mystery boy he had a crush on in his senior year?”

“He told you about that? About Michael?” Isobel is slightly surprised, neither Liz or Maria had known anything about Alex and Michael, it had taken all of them by surprise when Michael had finally admitted to it.

“Not in so many words, not by name or anything. Just things he used to say, comments and stuff, it wasn’t that hard to figure out,” Rosa shrugs and Isobel laughs a little because it must have been a little harder then that since no one _else_ in their admittedly small circle of friends had known.

“He’s going to treat him good, right? Michael is? I don’t need to have the big sister talk with him?”

“I’m fairly confident that Alex’s brothers _and_ mother may have already had that talk several times with him.”

********************************

Hunter is not on board with Alex moving into the new house. Not at all from the way he’s loitering and making disapproving faces. He can’t tell if it’s because he’s not been invited to stay in the guest room or because he’s moving in with Michael.

“I don’t like this,” Hunter says and Alex doesn’t roll his eyes at him.

“I think we can muddle through one night without someone babysitting us,” Alex says. Hunter’s eyes light up at the idea that maybe Alex won’t fight him come the next night.

And he won’t, not really, but it’s the first night in the house. He kind of like it to be him and Colby and Michael, without eyes watching and ears listening.

“What if something happens?” Hunter asks and Alex does roll his that time.

“Nothing is going to happen,” he holds up his hand when Hunter goes to argue with him, “and if something _does_ happen I’m sure whatever listening devices you have planted or cameras you’ve got situated will give you more then enough time to get to us in that case from the van I’m sure is going to be parked three houses down.”

“The van wasn’t my idea,” Hunter says, mouth twisting.

“No, it’s Ryder’s I’m sure,” Alex nods and pats at Hunter’s arm placatingly. “What is it exactly that Ryder is doing? I’ve not seen either you or him in uniform since…” He doesn’t say ‘got rescued’ because he’ll never get Hunter out of the house, let alone keep Ryder or Flint or even Max from attempting to take over the spare bedroom.

“Ryder’s in private security, I don’t know what that means but dad was really not happy with his decision to get out after his four was done,” Hunter shrugs. “He was pissed like that when I finished my ten and decided I was done, went back to college, I think Flint was the only one that stayed in, though I think he also hoped if he played dutiful son that eventually dad would slip up and lead us to where he was hiding you.”

Colby comes flying out of the kitchen, smile on his face and Alex doesn’t think that’ll ever get old. That smile on Colby’s face, the way he moves as if he wasn’t raised in a small cell as he wraps his arms around his waist and grins up at him.

“Papa says he’s putting food on the grill and if Uncle Hunter is staying, he needs to go buy more meat because there’s only enough for the three of us,” Colby reports breathlessly.

“Uncle Hunter isn’t staying,” Alex says, brushing his fingers over Colby’s head, smoothing the hair away from his forehead. “He’ll come back in the morning with donuts.”

Hunter sighs heavily, like Alex is doing all this just to make his life more difficult and Alex just waits.

“Alright, morning with donuts, I’ll even bring some coffee and juices with them,” Hunter says finally, he goes to his knees and hugs Colby before he leaves looking disgruntled as Alex shuts the door behind him.

“Papa said to go save you, did I save you dad?” Colby leans into his side and looks up at him. He’s got wide innocent eyes but a little half smirk tilt to his lips.

Alex ruffles his hair and lets him lead him out to the small patio area, the yard is all fenced in, there’s a brand-new swing set off to one side that Colby expresses absolutely no interest in.

Michael indeed does have the grill that inexplicably appeared in the backyard going, Colby is more interested in that, peering at where Michael has laid out some steaks directly on the grill, he’s got a cast iron skillet off to one side with what looks like shredded potatoes, onions and peppers going.

“We probably could have fed him but then I would have to explain to Max and Isobel why they couldn’t eat with us, then the rest of your brothers would have shown up and we definitely didn’t have enough to feed _all_ of them.”

“He can eat crappy take out with the rest of them while they stalk our movements on the cameras and listen to us watch TV before we go to bed,” Alex shrugs and Michael stops, and looks over at him with a half confused, half horrified expression on his face.

“Listening devices?” he asks slowly, Colby looks between them slowly.

“Yeah, you didn’t notice them?” Alex scratches at his neck and Michael’s expression just goes full on horrified.

“I knew about the cameras outside, but now there are listening devices?”

“There’s two inside as well, one facing the kitchen, one in the hallway between the front door and the living room, the listening devices are in the living room, kitchen and by the front door. None in the bedrooms but I didn’t really _search_ search for them, you know?”

“None out here?” Michael asks, eyes twitching in the direction of the one camera pointed at the backyard.

“Just the camera, no sound, we’ll let them have a couple of days, calm their nerves then start taking them down.”

“Your dad is chained to a hospital bed, why would they…” Michael shakes his head and turns back to the grill.

“Because it wasn’t just my dad running the Project, and they know it,” Alex shrugs, he moves up closer to the grill, it smells good and his stomach rumbles softly at the thought of getting to eat this. Michael slides an arm over his shoulders, nuzzles at his temple and kisses his cheek.

Alex leans heavy into his side and breathes, loops his thumb through one of Michael’s belt loops and marvels at the freedom of being able to do this.

Have this.

“Why don’t you go get drinks and stuff, we’ll put a blanket out and have a picnic or something,” Michael says softly. “Maybe we’ll go shopping for a table and chairs for out here tomorrow… maybe a tent to sleep in.”

Alex laughs softly, and doesn’t roll his eyes.

********************************

Colby decides he’s going to sleep in his own room, Michael isn’t sure how he feels about that. He’s gotten so used to having his kid safe between him and Alex.

“It was painted just for me,” Colby says as Alex tucks him in, there’s a light that when Alex switches it on it shows stars on the ceiling and Colby laughs delightedly. Michael doesn’t imagine he’s going to sleep any time soon.

“If you get scared…” Alex starts.

“I can come to your room and sleep with you, I know dad,” Colby grins at him. Alex presses a smattering of kisses to his cheek then backs off so Michael can hover over their kid in his place.

“I’m okay papa,” Colby says seriously, “I want to try, Aunt Isobel had it done just for me and your room doesn’t have the painting on the wall or the star lamp.”

“I know,” Michael cups his face in his hand, and doesn’t offer to paint the mural on the wall in their room or move the star lamp even though he thinks he’d get a huge amount of brownie points from Alex if he did so.

Alex leaves the door cracked when they leave, peering through the opening before letting Michael usher him into their room across the hall.

_Their_ room, Michael doesn’t think that’ll ever get old. That he has a room that he’ll share with Alex until they’re both hopefully old and gray and having to help each other hobble to the kitchen.

When they climb into bed they turn to the center, and there’s no Colby between them. It feels a little awkward, like something vital to their nighttime sleep routine is missing. Michael doesn’t know how to fix it, just lays there with his head on a pillow and watches Alex watch him.

Alex is the one that huffs, that finally closes the Colby shaped gap between them and curls up against Michael’s side, arm draping over his chest like it’s nothing. Like Michael’s heart isn’t stuttering at having Alex so close to him, at being able to wraps his arms loosely around him and share a pillow with him.

He links their fingers together, squeezing gently and Alex tilts his head back far enough to kiss his chin, to press a soft, tentative kiss to his lips. Alex curls tighter against him, head on his shoulder, Michael barely resists the urge to pull him impossibly closer.

Just barely, because they have time now.

********************************


	25. Chapter 25

**Missing 25**  


This is their new normal, Colby goes to sleep in his own room at night. Still fascinated by the stars on the ceilings and the mural on the wall and Michael goes to bed with Alex curled up beside him. They trade lazy kisses back and forth and talk about everything and nothing.

It’s been two weeks and they still have a revolving front door and one of Alex’s brothers, his mom, either of Michael’s siblings or their friends can be found entering as one is exiting.

“They’ve got lives, eventually they’ll have to go back them,” Alex says every night when they’re finally alone in the house, but Michael thinks they’re going to have to get used to the steady stream of visitors. Even as much as he likes the house when it’s just him and Alex and Colby.

They eat dinner at the kitchen table, then Alex removes whatever cameras and listening devices have been replaced while Michael sits at the table with Colby and they go through whatever homework is on the list that Isobel has put together for them.

Colby is smart, he might _actually_ be smarter than him and Alex put together. They breeze through the assignments together then go out into the backyard and sit side by side on the swings.

Colby has made it his mission to try and go as high as possible. Michael has made it his mission to try and distract his kid from going any higher than his blood pressure can take.

The first time Colby jumped from the swing laughing as he hit the ground, Michael almost had a panic attack at the thought of breaking his kid.

Colby had been fine, laughing the entire time and Michael knows that it’s part and parcel of being a kid. The problem is he was never _that_ kid, he knows in theory that the swing set and all the other games that have appeared around the house, the backyard and the garage are all things that kids should be playing with and want to do.

Alex sits cross legged on the grass and watches them, sometimes he brings the guitar that Ryder had handed over out with him and he’ll strum lazy chords while he watches them. When Michael gets tired of being that far away from him he’ll go sit next to him and half the time Alex will hand the guitar off to him and Colby will come curl up against Alex’s side and Michael will play half remembered songs and watch them watch him.

This is everything he never thought he needed but will defend his right to have and keep to the death.

********************************

“They’re moving dad today,” Ryder says when Alex opens the door in the morning.

“So you’re going to be hanging out then,” Alex says holding the door open so Ryder can come in, Ryder nods approvingly when Alex locks it behind them.

“He’s going to have to be the invisible man to escape this time,” Ryder says, “especially since he doesn’t have Noah’s help.”

Alex just looks at him and Ryder rolls his eyes, “please leave the cameras up until we’re sure that he’s safely moved wherever they’re moving him to?”

“You don’t know?” Alex asks and Ryder shakes his head. He really didn’t _want_ to know, if he doesn’t know mom can’t figure out a way to read his mind and scale some likely highly electrified fences, take out a bunch of guards and slit their dads throat.

Alex sighs heavily. He’s left the outside cameras up, but he takes down the interior ones each and every time, Ryder half wonders if that’s not one of his alien super powers that Ryder doesn’t ask about.

The ability to see where Ryder or Hunter have placed them after a visit, Oliver had been flabbergasted that Alex had even found the last one, it had been one of his new prototypes, about the size of a quarter and barely visible to the naked eye.

Alex had found it, smirked into the camera and then it had gone dark. Ryder hasn’t had the nerve to ask where he’s stashing them, that one at least, Oliver would like back.

Or at least be able to question Alex as to how he found it and what design elements could be changed to make it less visible.

Flint has already given up, shrugging and saying that it’s not worth the effort. Ryder and Hunter keep going, Ryder because he wants his brother safe and Hunter because he’s waiting to see if there’s a point where Alex just stops taking them down.

“Where is everyone?”

“I convinced Michael that the world wouldn’t end if he went to work and Colby is working on some puzzle thing that Miss Mara gave him,” Alex leads them into the kitchen, and there’s Colby at the table with a puzzle spread out in front of him.

Ryder doesn’t ask why Michael went to work and why Alex is okay with it, mostly because he’s sure Alex is desperate for things to settle into some sense of normalcy.

“So I wanted you to hear it from me instead of whichever grapevine is working, but we bought 852,” Ryder says.

Alex has a coffee cup in hand and it stops halfway to his mouth as he looks at him, narrows his eyes, Ryder holds up his hands.

It was totally not his idea.

“Mom apparently got to talking to David about it and,” he sighs, “we signed the papers this morning, I think his plan is to have movers pack up the apartment and ship everything here. It’s going to cost a fortune.”

********************************

“My brother and his boyfriend and are moving into the house down the street from us,” Alex says when he goes to therapy.

Michael and Colby are waiting patiently in the waiting room, Alex is sure that if he were to peer out the door that Colby would have Michael’s phone in hand and Michael would have Colby tucked protectively under his arm.

“Are you okay with that?” she asks, her name is Anna and she’s soft spoken and quiet, she always has a soft gentle look on her face and never seems to judge him when he breaks down.

Alex takes long seconds to think about, his gut reaction is no, he’s not okay. He’s not okay with his brothers thinking he needs one of them to always be watching over him. He doesn’t, he thinks he’s more than proven that.

But he also thinks that David’s decision to buy a house for Ryder down the street from where Alex is living with Michael and Colby has less to do with that being where they’re living and more to do with David wanting a home with Ryder. And him knowing Ryder enough that he knows Ryder wants his home to be as close to his family as possible.

“Yeah,” he says softly. “David’s going to ask him to marry him, he asked us if it was okay.”

He’s glad he’s going to be there to see that, that Flint found them and got Ryder to them and now they’ll get to watch Ryder get married. That in a year Colby might have a baby cousin. That maybe in a year he’ll have a sibling of his own.

They’ve talked about it, him and Michael, in abstract forms. He doesn’t think they’re either one of them ready to really work toward that.

Alex thinks that when they finally manage to _actually_ make love that doesn’t result in one or both of them coming in their pants before they can actually get the pants off, that he wants it to be for that physical reconnection with each other.

Not because they’re trying to give Colby a sibling that he’s started hinting about.

Anna listens to him talk about Ryder and David and their possible upcoming wedding and he doesn’t talk about how he and Michael get closer and closer each night as they curl up in bed and how Michael has stopped wearing t-shirts to bed and Alex gets to touch him whenever he wants. He would talk about it, but it feels private, something for him and Michael only.

The little clock in the corner makes a light boing that indicates his time is up and he stands when Anna does.

Both Michael and Colby look up when the door opens, and Colby doesn’t have Michael’s phone in hand but he is tucked under Michael’s arm. So, Alex was half right.

Anna never comes out with him, the door closes lightly behind him and it’s just the three of them.

“Your eyes aren’t red,” Colby says and he’s already on his feet, Michael as well.

“It was good,” Alex shrugs and Colby wraps his arms around his waist anyway, grinning up at him as Alex drags his fingers through his hair. Michael is close and when Alex looks over, he lifts a hand to cup Alex’s face in.

Alex leans into the kiss, breathes slowly when Michael backs off just enough to press their foreheads together then settles one of his hands low on Michael’s back.

He worked that morning with Liz, so he’s in dress pants and a button down, and is still mostly clean shaven, his hair is smoothed back though the curls are starting to escape from whatever he puts in them in the morning to keep them tamed.

“I was thinking we could go to the Crashdown for lunch,” he says, lips dragging across the roughness of Michael’s cheek. “Introduce Colby to one of Arturo’s milk shakes and some fries.”

“Yeah?” Michael says, it’s been almost two months and it’s the one thing that Alex hasn’t really managed.

To be able to go out in public and have people staring at him, at them. Michael doesn’t seem to care; Alex thinks he’d be okay with Alex being a recluse for the rest of their lives. All of their friends would be okay with that, but he also thinks that’s not really him, he thinks he’s ready now.

Though he might be back in Anna’s office in two days talking about it was a bad idea and why did no one stop him.

“Yeah.”

********************************

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been a wild ride, thank you so much for everyone that continued to read and leave feedback. I adore each and everyone one of you more then I can say.
> 
> The bulk of this story is done, there may be a series of one shots coming at some indeterminate point in the future (I've got two other stories I want to focus my attention on first). Feel free to leave comments if there is something specific you would like to see. Please note though, for those of you who would like to know in more detail what Alex went through in those 10 years that I may or may not explore it. 
> 
> Thank you again!


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